Cross Collision
by Feniiku
Summary: Danny Fenton and his friends find themselves trapped in the world of Sonic the Hedgehog after an experiment with a Ghost Portal goes wrong... Meanwhile things are at an unrest in both worlds, as threats they never knew appear.
1. Ghosts and Portals

**Cross Collision**

_Danny Phantom/Sonic the Hedgehog crossover fan fiction_

Part 1: Ghosts and Portals

* * *

><p>A series of numbers and words played out across the screen of a powerful computer as the typist input more calculations and figures into it.<p>

"Let's see... Those calculations should be correct."

"That's correct, Vladdiekins. Chance of success is ninety one point three percent."

The holographic woman flipped the sheet of paper over her virtual clip board, and smiled alluringly at the typist, but was ignored as he studied the figures on the screen. He put a hand to his white beard and scowled at the screen as he contemplated the odds.

"Only ninety one point three? Hmm. Well, I suppose we should get someone to test it then."

"That is the recommended suggestion, a lower ghost, such as the Box Ghost, would be a suitable candidate."

Vlad Masters gave an irritated growl in his throat, turning away from the computer he had been focused on and moving over towards another one. He glanced at the long panel of keypads and screens now in front of him as the hologram appeared from the projectors at the end. A large, white cat was sprawled across the top of the machine, but the dark suited man ignored it as the hologram of the woman he loved waited for him to speak again.

"The Box Ghost is an incompetent moron. He would probably find some way to mess this up." He frowned and put his hands to the new keyboard, typing away at it in an attempt to correct the numbers. They didn't change for him. "What are the chances of failure, Maddie?" He crooned to the hologram.

"While there is a ninety one point three percent success rate, this still leaves an eight point seven failure rate. On top of this, there is a fifty percent chance that it will catastrophically fail, potentially with an explosion that could wipe out half of Amity Park, regardless of the initial result, darling." came the programmed affectionate reply.

Vlad looked through his hologram at the large, hexagonal doorway built into one wall, then put his attention back onto his screen. The diagrams and numbers shifted with each key press, displaying different outcomes for the experiment. A small smirk played out across his face.

"Well then... We'll just have to get another lesser ghost to try it out..."

* * *

><p>"I can't believe how much homework they gave us this weekend, it's crazy!"<p>

Sneakers and boots trod along the pavement as the three friends made their way home from school for the weekend. They smiled at each other and shook their heads simultaneously, sympathising over the workload. The girl in the group, dressed in black despite the sunshine, shrugged at the boy who had complained.

"Hey, who knows, maybe the ghosts will give you a break?"

"As if that'll happen."

"Don't worry Danny, if any attack, we're all in it together, right?"

"Heh, good point Sam."

"Aww but there's an epic battle going on in Doomed tomorrow!" the third teen wasn't paying much attention to the homework complaining, instead he was tapping at the buttons of a PDA, "if we get attacked again we're not going to be able to take part!"

"Really?" Danny's jaw dropped. "Oh man, never mind the ghosts, Dad'll never let me play if I don't get my homework done!"

"Bummer."

Sam smiled playfully. "Well then, you'd best get straight to work on it when you get back!"

"Are you kidding?" Danny raised an eyebrow sceptically at the goth. "Dad'll probably leap on me with some new invention of his and I'll never get away!"

"Then we'll come with you, and when your dad starts talking, we can distract him so you can get to your room."

"We will?" Tucker yelped as Sam rammed an elbow into his stomach. "Ow! Uh- I mean, yeah! Of course we will!"

Danny pointed a finger at them. "I'll hold you to that!" He said, smirking.

A bird's shadow passed over them as they walked onwards, laughing at each other. The bird fluttered to land atop a building, accompanying two more of its kind, as they watched the children below. Danny stopped, looking around, and they jumped in unison from the rooftop, diving towards the trio.

"Oh no..." Danny gasped, wisps of cold air passing between his teeth. He hissed at his friends, seeing the large, otherworldly green vultures swooping down towards them. "Move it guys!"

One of the ghostly birds collided with him as he turned to chase after his friends, winding him as the large talons scratched against his back, knocking him to the ground with a grunt. Sam and Tucker swiped at the other two vultures with their backpacks, knocking them into the one pinning Danny down. While it didn't release the teen, its claws released him from their grip slightly, and gave him a chance to push himself up with his forearms. The vulture regained his balance, however, and pushed the dark haired boy back to the ground, tapping at his head with his beak.

"You'll stay put if you know what's good for you!" the vulture grumbled at his captive, while his brothers circled Danny's friends. "You're coming with us, boyo."

"Aww come on now you guys!" Danny chuckled, his voice muffled slightly due to his face being squashed against the pavement. "You should know me by now! I don't go anywhere-" bright rings of white energy appeared at his midriff, and split apart, simultaneously moving up his torso and down his legs. "-without-" as the rings shifted across his body, the clothing altered from his white and red t-shirt and jeans, to a black and white jumpsuit. "-a fight!"

The rings passed his feet, leaving white boots in place of red trainers, and his head, shifting jet black hair into snow white. The vulture bristled at the change, knowing what was coming next, even before Danny phased into the floor below him, leaving the ghost to claw at concrete. His brothers spotted the missing teen, and started to fly over to him, when a white gloved fist connected with the elderly bird's beak from below, launching him into the air as a fast moving human ghost followed swiftly behind it.

Danny folded his arms, looking distinctly fed up as he floated just above the ground. He watched the ghosts group up again, while the one he'd punched was rubbing his beak with a wing. Sam and Tucker watched them from nearby, having backed off slightly once the birds had stopped circling them. Tucker was digging in his bag for something, while Sam observed the vultures as they stared Danny down.

"Sam, I think I left the Thermos in my locker!"

"Never mind that right now. Aren't those Vlad's cronies?"

"Hey! Who are you calling a crow?" One of the birds turned his head to glower at her, and she raised her hands defensively in response, smirking.

"Yeah, what gives?" Danny spoke up, and the bird turned his attention back to him. "Vlad still hasn't given up yet? Even though I... or rather, my dad... completely wiped the floor with him last time? What's he up to?"

"He didn't tell us any plan, just that we had to come get you." the vulture who'd pinned him down spoke, and Danny rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, so are you gonna come quietly or are we going to have to drag you?"

"Can you just go back to the fruit loop and tell him his plan won't work? I have a lot of homework to do and you're kind of in my way."

The birds just stared at him, frowning. Danny sighed, a small puff of frosted air escaping his mouth as he did so. He shrugged his shoulders as he shook his head.

"Oh fine. Can we just make this quick? I have a schedule to keep."

"Danny, I don't think that's such a good idea!" Sam chided, eyes shifting to the birds. Something wasn't right about the whole situation.

"Come on Sam, he's beaten these things before, and look at them! I mean, there's not much a bunch of old pigeons can do to him, right Danny?" Tucker looked towards his friend, who was charging a bright aura of green energy around his hand.

"Right Tuck! You worry too much, Sam." Danny blasted the energy in the form of a beam, knocking one of the birds out of the air as he continued to speak. "I can take these losers out easily, then we can go home, get these stupid projects out of the way..." he turned to face them, raising his hands in front of his face as if he was holding an invisible video game controller and bashing the buttons on it, "... and play games until our eyes mel- AARGH!"

Danny yelled as he found himself slammed into a nearby wall; one of the vultures had charged at him again as he'd let his guard down, and now his claws were piercing through the ghost's clothing, effectively nailing him to the brickwork. The bird holding him there smirked, his crooked beak inches from Danny's face.

"So, you wanted a duel, right?"

"Dude, I don't! I thought I already said that!"

Danny shifted the energy in his body and slid backwards into the wall, leaving the bird clawing at brickwork. The vulture, not to be outdone, phased his own head into the wall, but couldn't see any sign of the ghost boy. His brothers flew up behind him, and as he pulled his head back out of the wall they huffed impatiently.

"Come on, come on, we haven't got all day!" The one with glasses squawked. His brother pulled his claws from the wall and looked around, confused.

"That boy is slippery, but we'll get him."

"Uh, no, you won't." came Danny's echoing response, and the birds found their heads cracked together by the arms poking out of the wall. The vultures fell to the floor below, and the half-ghost stuck his head back out of the solid surface, looking down at them with a confused smile. "Heh, Vlad can't want me that much if he only sent you three..." the third bird hit the ground next to his brothers as he zapped it with an energy beam "... so how about you all go home, before you hurt yourselves?"

One of the birds groaned, looking up at him as he leaned on the wall like he would on a desk. "Okay, yeah, that might be a good idea."

"Yeah, it is. So whatcha gonna do?"

"Danny! Look out!" Sam and Tucker cried in unison from below, as they saw the newcomers flying in from above.

"Wha-? WHOA!"

Danny didn't have a chance to turn his head, as ectoplasmic tentacles wrapped around his shoulders and yanked him free from the wall. The tentacles wrapped around him, stopping him from slipping out of their grasp or raising his hands to fire at the two octopus ghosts that had grabbed him. He grinned nervously as they lifted him higher, before spinning until he was dizzy and launching him towards the ground.

"Danny!"

Sam and Tucker watched the split second moment as their friend fell yelling towards the ground in a black and white blur. He hit the pavement with a thud and a small could of debris bounced up into the air as he yelped. The teens ran over towards where Danny lay, in a shallow impact crater. He was already sitting up when they got there, rubbing his forehead.

"Idiot, why didn't you go intangible?" He grumbled to himself, looking rather offended as his friends came over to him.

"Are you alright Danny?"

"Ugh, yeah. I've taken bigger hits but wow, sneaking up on a guy isn't fair!" he floated to his feet and dusted his jumpsuit off. "Hey, bird brains! You didn't tell me those guys were here too!" Danny pointed at the ectopusses as they floated behind the vultures, hissing.

"You didn't ask." One of the birds replied, matter-of-factly.

"I've beaten better ghosts than you and the ectopusses before, can you just leave me alone before I have to hurt you?"

"You're just sore because we have the upper hand."

"You caught me off guard, that's all."

"Danny, come on, these idiots aren't worth it. Just ignore them." Sam urged, scowling at the ghosts overhead. "Maybe they'll get bored and leave."

"Or," Tucker chimed in, "he could totally kick their butts!"

"Hmm... Good idea Sam..." Danny stood up straight, looking up at the ghosts, before a smirk played across his face and his hands started to glow green. "... But I like Tucker's better!"

He jumped back up into the air, firing the beams at the ghosts as he did so, splitting the group apart. They regrouped quickly and the vultures dived at him in unison, while the ectopusses floated at a safe distance. Danny couldn't say he minded too much, it meant less ghosts attacking him at once. He charged his beams, but the birds broke away from each other, splitting up to surround him. Danny blinked, wondering what they were up to, but as he aimed the ghost rays at one, all three started flying towards him like feathered green missiles. He altered the path of the energy, and instead of it forming a beam, he created a spherical shield out of it instead.

The vultures crashed into it as it formed in front of them, and were knocked backwards by the impact. Danny shut his eyes as they charged it again, and again, and again, each blow taking a little more energy away. He was concentrating so hard on maintaining his shield, he didn't notice the ectopusses until they crashed into the guard from above and below. The defence being weaker there, as it wasn't where the vultures were attacking, they broke through it, and Danny yelled out as the birds hit him at the same time as the larger, heavier, octopi. He gasped for air as they backed away again, only to be hit in the chest by a bright purple beam of energy through the new opening.

He yelled out as he was blasted out from the midst of the ghosts, falling from the air and landing with a crash in a nearby dumpster. Sam and Tucker called for their friend in concern, and ran over to him. The assailant floated in mid-air with his arms folded, glaring in the direction of his minions.

"I give you idiots one simple task," he growled, "and you are taking far too long!"

"Hey, we're trying!" One of the vultures retorted, obviously irritated. They'd just broken the ghost boy's shield after all, and that took effort.

"Hmph." The newcomer scowled, then looked down to the teens running past below. "Oh no you don't."

In a flash, Sam and Tucker found themselves staring down two copies of Vlad Plasmius, the ghost who had just joined the fray. They were blocked from reaching Danny, so they started to back away again.

"Ah... Um... I think we'd better go..." Tucker said anxiously.

"Yeah... lots of homework to do, you know how it is..." Sam agreed. If there was one ghost they didn't want to deal with, it was Plasmius.

"I'm afraid you two aren't going anywhere, you're my little guests." The copies said, as the original flew towards Danny's landing spot.

Danny cried out as he was hauled into the air by his wrist, hanging slightly awkwardly as his powers kicked in to keep his own weight from damaging his arm. He was feeling slightly dizzy, but that didn't stop him from glaring at the grin of the older ghost that held him.

"Go away Vlad. I'm not kidding, I really don't have time to play with you."

"Really. Well I have a far more exciting game planned than this one." Vlad smiled wickedly.

"Not interested." Danny reached up with his free hand to try prying Vlad's from his wrist, before a shock of energy raced through his body. "Arrrrrrrrrrrrghhhh!" he screamed, going rigid as Vlad virtually electrocuted him with his powers.

"Whoever said you had a choice?"

Danny winced, trying to resist the coursing energy as he heard his friends calling for help nearby. He hissed through his teeth at Vlad, who simply raised an eyebrow in response. "Can. You. Stop. That. Already?"

"Not until you've learned your lesson, my boy..." Vlad lifted his arm up, pulling Danny up to face level, and glared straight into the otherworldly green eyes. "I am still far more powerful..." he spun, and released his grip on the teen, sending him crashing straight into a wall, smoking from the energy attack. "... than you!"

Danny drooped limply as he fell from the wall, the rings that signalled his transformation shifting across him, turning him back into a human as he hit the floor in a daze. His friends shouted at him, urging him to get up, until he cracked his blue eyes open and groaned, rubbing his head.

"Ugh... lucky throw..." he grumbled, before making a choking sound as Vlad pinned his neck to the ground with a boot. He gasped and grabbed at it, trying to lift it off.

"My boy, you may wish to reconsider fighting me. I would prefer not to hurt you more than necessary."

"... what?" Danny gasped, trying to keep his air going.

"Are you deaf?" Vlad reached down and grabbed Danny's wrist again, lifting him back into the air. The teenager looked particularly unimpressed by the attack on his arm again. "Now, you're going to come with me. And just so they don't tattle, your friends are coming too."

"Yeah, whatever. You can put me down now."

"If I did that, you'd only run away..." Vlad looked like he was thinking it over, but shook his head, "... so no."

The teenagers screamed as they were zapped in unison, Vlad's clones each attacking the child they had captured, while Vlad himself handled Danny. The boy, being half ghost, could take far more energy than his friends, but they were all knocked out by the attack, and they fell limp in his grasp. The ectopusses grabbed Sam and Tucker as Vlad made his copies vanish.

"That's enough fun and games." Vlad said, baring a fanged smile at his octopus minions. "Let's take our guests back to my lab, shall we?"

As they flew away, the vultures looked at each other, and shrugged.

"What a jerk."

* * *

><p>"Unnhhhh..."<p>

Danny groaned and his vision slowly came back. The blurry view before him soon clarified into a laboratory, and a rather pleased with himself ghost. Danny tried to jump up, but he was still dizzy and was chained to something; his arms trapped inside the chain. Which was glowing. He tried to transform, but found that he couldn't.

"Great..."

"Ahh Daniel, it's so good to see you're awake."

"Are you alright, Danny?" Sam's voice came from behind him, and he realised he was wrapped in the same chain as his friends.

"Dude, I thought you were gonna sleep the whole time. Vlad's been talking and talking and talking and it's been getting kinda boring." Tucker spoke up too.

"Yeah, I'm alright... What are you up to this time, you fruit loop?" Danny grumbled, cutting straight to the point.

"What, no quips about how I defeated you in battle? Again?"

"Oh, sorry, I must be a bit tired after the whole cheating zapping thing you did." Danny rolled his eyes as he responded with sarcasm. Vlad chuckled.

"That's more like it. As for cheating, I prefer tactical manipulation of the odds."

"Ghost inhibiting chain?"

"Why yes, it is. Do you like it?"

"Hmm. Well, puce isn't my colour." Danny said, referring to the glow of the restraint.

"Oh nonsense, it suits you just fine." Vlad smirked. "It goes far better with your eyes than that black jump suit you usually wear does."

Danny scowled, blue eyes glowing with a faint green light as he did so. "They're a bit uncomfortable."

"Well I'll see if I can't improve that next time. But for now, I need you to test something for me."

"No. Test it yourself."

"My boy, you don't really have a choice in the matter." Vlad turned away from them, typing out something at a nearby keyboard. "And it would be foolish to test any modifications to the Ghost Portal myself, after all."

"So you're sending a kid to test it? Real classy." Sam grumbled sarcastically, and Vlad looked over his shoulder back at them.

"I'm not sending 'a kid' to test it." He said, grinning cruelly. "I'm sending three obnoxious little brats!"

Vlad tapped the final key and flicked his hand away from the keyboard dramatically, whilst to their side the large doorway thrummed into life, crackling with energy that arced across the opening. Danny and his friends looked over at it, and watched the digital display beside it stating that the energy levels were increasing.

The older ghost walked back over to them, and hauled them to their feet by tugging on the chain binding them together. Danny glowered at him silently with green eyes, Sam kept shifting her attention between Danny and Vlad, whilst Tucker was preoccupied with trying to give explanations for why they shouldn't be thrown in there. Vlad ignored them all, as the portal screamed into its fully open stage; a swirling vortex of ghostly green energy.

"Are you ready kids?"

"No, not really?"

"Tough."

Vlad threw them into the vortex of energy, and they passed through it into the dimension beyond with a loud crack. As they passed through it, vanishing, the vortex started to glow brighter, swirling faster. Vlad ignored it, however, and turned back to his computers, where he could see the view inside the ghost zone from a small device he'd hidden on the children whilst they were unconscious. The otherworldly green scenery was an echo of his own world, and despite having been able to move through it for years, he never quite got over the unsettling view within. His eyes drifted over to another monitor, which was displaying a chart of his portal modifications.

"All well so far. Now, if this works, these children should go directly to-" he had put in a relatively harmless location, but he wasn't sure if the teens would come back in one piece. That was a minor issue he would have been prepared to deal with. He wasn't, however, prepared as the Ghost Zone started to fade to blue, much less familiar shapes, before the image split into static. An alarm sounded and a large warning image flashed up on every screen in the room; including the power display on the Ghost Portal. "-oh butter biscuits! What's going on?"

He looked across to the portal, which was shaking violently as sparks flew from the entrance; now practically white with hot energy. Vlad floated slightly above the ground as the laboratory started to shake, a loud rumbling and rattling resounding through the laboratory. He stared at it, before closing his eyes and turning intangible at the expectation of an explosion.

Which never came, as the portal shut down with a thunk. Smoke floated from the entrance and joint-work, and the remaining crackles of energy fizzled away into the air. The ghost frowned, puzzled, and rings of black light moved across his body as he shifted back into his human form.

"Well... That was anti climatic... Maddie, can you find out the cause please, my dear?" Vlad said as the hologram materialised beside him, smiling as always. He looked back over to the monitor as the hologram vanished again, having taken her orders and started work. What he saw there caused him to raise an eyebrow. "What's this now?" he asked no one in particular, looking at the new image on this screen. "Well this is a surprise... I wonder..."

* * *

><p>Danny groaned as he opened his eyes slowly, but shutting them tight as bright sunlight attacked them. He put his hands to his face, shielding them from the light as he tried again.<p>

'Wait, sunlight?' That thought alone made him sit up and blink the grogginess from his eyes. Very few places in the Ghost Zone had their own sunlight, and even less could call it bright. But he knew he had to be there, that was the only place the portals could connect to. He sat up, and realised that he wasn't bound by the chain any more, so he looked around for it, but his gaze stopped when he spotted where it had gone. Sam and Tucker lay on the grass nearby, obviously peaceful, that is, until Danny put his hands on their shoulders and shook them.

"Guys..." he hissed quietly, eyes not moving from where they rested. "I really think you should get up!"

"Five more minutes..." Tucker mumbled, before starting to snore.

Sam, however, slowly pushed herself up. "Mnhh... Whoa, that was weird... What's up Danny?"

"I think we have a problem... We're being stared at..."

"Danny, we're in the Ghost Zone, we get stared at all the time here-" Sam looked indignant as Danny interrupted her.

"That's just it Sam..."

He pointed to where his vision lay, over Sam's shoulder. As she turned her head to see what the fuss was about, she found herself staring at the creature holding the chain in one hand and a screwdriver in the other.

"... I don't think we're in the Ghost Zone..."

_TBC_


	2. Chaos and Star Posts

**Cross Collision**

Part 2: Chaos and Star Posts

* * *

><p>"Wahoo!"<p>

A whirr of cobalt quills span through the air, bouncing off of the top of a large, hornet shaped robot. The insect exploded in a small puff of smoke and sparks, as the ball of spikes that had hit it uncurled in mid air, laughing cheerfully. Spotting another robot nearby, the hedgehog kicked his feet together, pushing the air with the vibration and sending him forwards into it. He swung a punch, knocking the Buzzer's head off, and dropped to the floor as it exploded above him.

Sonic the Hedgehog chuckled lightly, clapping his gloved hands together as if he was dusting them off, smiling up at the man with the moustache nearby. The human glared down at him from his position in a black and red painted, round hovercraft. His bushy ginger moustache twitched with irritation at the oversized rodent, and he snapped his fingers. Another wave of wasp robots swooped down from the skies, heading directly towards Sonic.

"Aww Eggman, what happened to your sense of humour?"

"It took a walk. Give me the Chaos Emerald!"

"What, this shiny little thing here?"

Sonic pulled the gemstone from between his spikes, tilting it side to side so that it caught the light, seemingly having forgotten about the circling Buzzers overhead. The green of the gem matched his eyes, and his smile didn't falter as his attention shifted between it and Doctor Eggman's face. The Emerald was put back into its hiding spot, much to the rotund scientist's irritation.

"Sonic..." he started, but trailed off.

"Yes~?" the hedgehog chimed in response.

"You've forgotten you're surrounded, haven't you?"

"Nope!"

Sonic vanished from the spot he'd been standing in, and was bouncing around the ring of wasps in a split second, destroying some himself, while mistimed shots from others destroyed the rest. Soon he was standing on the head of the last Buzzer, which was whirring almost angrily at being unable to attack him. Sonic tapped a foot, rattling the robot's head, while pointing at Eggman.

"You were saying?"

"Sonic, I could really use that."

"For what?" Sonic put his hands together and shuffled a foot as if playing an innocent child. "'Helping the world'? 'I want to mend my ways'? Or making a new egg poacher out of your microwave, perhaps?" He laughed, shaking his head. "Skip it dude, I'm not Knuckles, I don't fall for your tricks so easily, and you know it."

"Well it was worth a shot." Eggman pulled a small laser canon from inside his floating pod, firing it at his nemesis without a warning.

"Whoa!" Sonic jumped into the air, and the blast narrowly missed his trailing foot. He dropped to the ground; his platform having been destroyed by its creator; and looked up accusingly at him. "Don't you think you were over-reacting a bit there? You blew up your toy for me!"

"Hold still!"

"Nuh uh, not a chance!"

Sonic bounced backwards from another shot, before shooting forwards the second his feet touched the ground again. He ran faster than Eggman could fire the weapon, moving underneath the hovercraft so he couldn't be hit. Every attempt the scientist made to change his position for a clean shot, Sonic moved back underneath him again with a playful laugh.

To Sonic, this was a game. The same thing happened on a regular basis; Eggman wanted the Emeralds for some 'grand master plan to take over the world', Sonic stopped him, the end. Most people would have grown tired of the routine, he supposed, but it gave him something to do so he had fun with it. He sidestepped another shot, watching it fizzle on the grass by his foot, and looked up at Eggman, grinning again.

"Hey, Eggman?"

"What?"

"You couldn't hit the broad side of a Death Egg!"

"Why you little-!"

Sonic bounced side to side as the scientist started an automatic mode of some sort, avoiding the rapid fire shots with ease. It was as if the man wasn't even trying, though the hedgehog knew it was likely down to him being too fast to hit. He was just playing with time now from boredom, waiting for his friends to turn up.

"C'mon, you can do better than that!"

"Stay put!"

"Naa." and with that, Sonic jumped into the air, to land on the egg-o-matic next to Eggman, who looked positively offended. "Hi!"

Eggman made a grab for him, but Sonic had moved around the other side of the machine. "Oh for the love of- Sonic!"

"What~?"

Pushing his spectacles up his nose in irritation, Eggman turned his head to see his nemesis holding the laser, examining it curiously. "How did you-"

"So what's powering this thing?"

"It's none of your-"

"That's nice, what else can it do?" Sonic continued, obviously not actually paying attention.

"It can-"

"Can I play with it? Yes? Okay cool!"

"What?" Eggman blinked at him, though Sonic wouldn't have seen that through the blue glasses. He spluttered as Sonic jumped off of the egg-o-matic and ran off with the weapon. "Come back here!" he shouted uselessly, as Sonic had already gone.

Eggman frowned thoughtfully, but a beeping on the dashboard of his console distracted him. It was close by, so the noise had probably been sounding for a while; it wasn't an alarm so it was quiet. He hadn't heard it over Sonic's pestering, but the hedgehog was gone; albeit with a weapon Eggman would have to get back at some point, it wasn't finished, could be unstable, and he didn't want the hedgehog defeating himself before he could; so now he could focus his attention on it.

"Another Emerald?" He said, looking at the radar that had led him to Sonic in the first place. That had been unlucky; materials to build robotic minions weren't cheap, after all. But this new blip was much nearer; Sonic had run off, no doubt to find his friends, and this left Eggman to do what he wanted, for the time being. And what he wanted was to find a Chaos Emerald.

* * *

><p>Tails watched the approaching dust cloud, fiddling with the controls on the Miles-Electric computer he was holding. Curious as to why Sonic had taken so long to get back, he switched the machine over to a radar mode, where several numbers displayed on one side, with a simple circular graph that showed three points on it, relative to his position in the centre of the chart. One, he knew, was Sonic's biplane; the Tornado; which was parked nearby, and the one moving very very fast across the chart was Sonic, who was holding a Chaos Emerald, which made him easy to track. The third was in the direction Sonic was running from.<p>

Sonic skidded to a stop next to the fox, grinning like an idiot, with the weapon he'd swiped leaning against his shoulder. Tails raised an eyebrow at him, the question in his mind was obviously playing across his face, as his hedgehog brother shuffled awkwardly, looking at the gun-like device. Sonic passed it to him, looking over his shoulder as he did so. Tails spotted the familiar insignia engraved into its stock, and rolled his eyes. Sonic laughed as the fox spoke.

"What did you do this time, Sonic?"

"Nothing, I swear! I was minding my own business, Eggman came along, demanded my Emerald, I smashed his robots, you know how it goes!"

"And what's this?"

"Egg breath pulled that on me after I did all that other stuff," Sonic frowned at it, "I dunno what kind of weapon it is, but it makes my spikes bristle."

"Probably something Chaos based, or maybe electro-magnetic." Tails suggested, looking it over.

"Magnets?"

"Mhmm, they can interfere with Chaos, I explained this after the whole... werehog thing." he responded cautiously. Sonic wasn't particularly keen on being reminded of that, and the split second disappearance of the smile didn't go unnoticed by his friend, though most would have missed it. Tails turned the topic back to the gun. "I'll take this apart and find out what it's made of, you might wanna go find Eggman."

"Again?" Sonic sighed exaggeratedly. "Why?"

"I think there's another Chaos Emerald near to where you were."

"Fine fine, should I take egghead his gun back?"

"Uh, no, I don't think you wanna be full of holes... Or fried... or whatever this thing does."

"Good point. Here, hold onto this would you?" Sonic threw his Emerald at Tails, who tried to catch it, but missed, letting it fall onto his lap instead. "Cool, back in a flash!"

Tails watched Sonic run away again, and smiled; if there was a reliable way to get Sonic to go anywhere, it was telling him that there was an evil plot afoot. This way Sonic would retrieve the Chaos Emerald, and Tails had the opportunity to dismantle the new weapon without any interruptions. The fox slid his computer from his lap, and turned the gun over, examining all sides.

It really didn't look like anything special. Tails decided that Eggman had probably simply made it as a last resort. He gave him credit where it was due, though; a laser was far faster than a bullet, and its power could be altered between varying levels of fatal or non-fatal with a bit of tweaking. But Sonic had met lasers before, and if this one put him on edge, Tails wanted to know why. He put a hand to the base of the Miles-Electric, pulling a small screwdriver from the lower edge where he stored it for tune ups. A quick glance at the radar showed the Emerald blip moving around rapidly; Sonic must have gotten hold of it and was apparently winding Eggman up again.

Tails giggled, imagining the squabbling, and put the screwdriver to the side of the weapon, slowly taking it apart. It was more rifle-like in shape, obviously meant more for distance than anything else, though whether it was meant for Sonic precisely or for any poor person in the way Tails couldn't be sure. He opened it up, explicitly looking for the power source. Eggman had a history for using strange and unique power methods, ranging from trapped animals to synthetic Chaos energy. The fox's fur stood on end, suddenly worried that he'd find a mouse inside the weapon. It only took him a moment to realise that if there was one in there, he'd be doing it a favour by letting it out. So he resumed dismantling it, laying the pieces side by side in the order he'd taken them off, to put it back together if need be.

He found himself slightly disappointed at seeing a simple Chaos Drive was powering it. Green; the most common type. Powerful, yes, but nothing to worry about. He frowned, thinking carefully as he turned it over in his hand, examining it for anything odd. Nothing.

"Tails!"

"Yaaahhhh!"

The fox dropped the device as he jumped up into the air, his twin namesakes whirling to keep him airborne. Sonic caught the Drive, chuckling at having startled his friend as he looked at it, expression portraying the same disappointment Tails had felt at seeing it.

"Sonic!" Tails whined. "Don't startle me like that!"

"Is this all?" He pouted, seemingly not realising that it was actually good news that the weapon wouldn't kill him. "Bummer."

"Sonic, this is good news! At least we know you won't be killed by it."

"Yeah yeah, I know." Sonic shook his head, and gave the drive to the fox as he landed. "But it means Eggman wasn't trying to hurt me. And that worries me."

"Oh I dunno Sonic, maybe he just forgot and grabbed the nearest thing to hand."

"... Yeah, I guess..." Sonic put a hand to his chin.

"So what did Eggman find? Was it a Chaos Emerald?"

Sonic blinked, and shook his head, pulling the white gemstone from his quills. "That's the funny thing, it looks like one, and it shows on yours and egghead's radars like one, right?" Tails nodded his head. "But it's not. It feels different."

"Oooo..." Tails reached out his hands, in a very obvious gesture that made Sonic smile again as he handed it over.

"You have fun with that, I'm gonna go bother Eggman some more!" Sonic grinned cheekily. "He's in just the right mood to be annoyed without going all 'end of the world' on me!"

"Be careful Sonic."

"Aren't I always?"

Sonic's smirk told Tails that there was very little point in responding to it, and he gave his buddy a small salute, before charging off again. Tails shook his head, picking up his computer and tucking it and the drive under an arm. He stared at the not-an-emerald as he made his way back towards the Tornado. The Chaos Drive would make a good spare for the bi-plane's power supply, and he had better equipment than just his computer in the aircraft. He wanted a good look at the stone.

* * *

><p>Eggman was annoyed. In fact, he was more than annoyed; Sonic had snatched that emerald right out from underneath him, run around in circles, fried his egg-o-matic's engines by tap dancing on it, then run off again. But that wasn't what annoyed him most at that moment.<p>

What was annoying him most was that Sonic had come back and was now sitting on the hovercraft while Eggman was trying to repair it. And he kept trying to kick the hatch shut on the scientist's head.

"Hey Eggman?" Sonic asked, for the fifteenth time in the past five minutes.

"WHAT NOW?"

"Whoa, chill dude. I was just wondering what you were planning to do this time?" Sonic smiled, an oddly sincere one, considering that they'd been mortal enemies for well over a decade.

"None of your business."

"Aww come on, you send a bunch of Buzzers on me and you don't even wanna do the 'evil bad guy monologue' bit? I'm hurt." Sonic said, pouting.

"Good." Eggman snapped, and got the hatch kicked down onto the top of his head again. He flailed as he shoved it back up, locking it back into place once more. "Will you stop that?"

"Stop what?" Sonic had reclined, obviously not fearing the scientist in the least.

Eggman didn't respond, knowing full well by now that if he did, Sonic would only kick the hatch again. So he resumed the task of replacing the burnt out parts in the engines with spares he kept with him for just such an occasion. Sonic sighed loudly, trying to annoy him, he could only assume. But once he finished, and slammed the hatch shut, the hedgehog jumped off of the machine, letting him right it and get back in.

"Eggy?"

"... What?"

"What's with that thing you were shooting at me?"

"It's nothing special..." Eggman snarled, still irate that it had been stolen.

"Oh, well we dismantled it just so you know. Tails is keeping it." Sonic turned and started to walk away.

"I would prefer if you'd return it immediately, Sonic."

"Why? It's just a Chaos Drive." Emerald eyes glanced over his shoulder, eyeing the scientist with suspicion. "Isn't it?"

"Well of course it is. I just happened to make it out of some experimental materials." Eggman frowned, brows furrowing over the rims of his spectacles. "And it is rather untested, I would so hate for you to destroy yourselves for me."

"Hmm..." Sonic's tone of voice didn't sound convinced, but he smiled anyway. "Well, I'm keeping the emerald then!"

"Pah! I'll only retrieve it later!"

"You do that."

Sonic chuckled, and took a step backwards, ready to run off. His ears flicked before he could, however, and Eggman watched as he straightened. The human looked in the direction that Sonic was, watching his spikes stand on end from the corner of his eye. The hedgehog's sensitive hearing had caught something, before the flash appeared over a distant hill. Eggman shuddered as a chill passed over them, the grass below rippling with the shock wave.

Sonic's face dropped into a grim expression, and Eggman piloted his hovercraft away. He'd seen that serious stare more times than he liked, and it not being directed at him was worrying. What could be a more powerful threat than him?

"You stay here, Eggman."

Sonic hissed, but he was running off before he'd finished talking. The words lingered in the air, and the scientist shivered. If there was one thing that could get Sonic to go where he wanted, it was putting his best friend, little brother, and ally, into danger. Tails must have been in that direction. Eggman pressed a button on his console, activating a cloaking device that rendered him invisible, before he started to follow.

He wanted to see what would be so stupid as to upset one of the most dangerous creatures on Earth.

* * *

><p>Sonic yelled with surprise as he crashed into the side of a dome of white energy, which bounced him off of it and sent him skidding across the grass. He sat up, rubbing his head and brushing static from his fur, glaring at it. Okay, so the head on approach wasn't going to cut it, not if he wanted to avoid a headache anyway.<p>

"Tails? Are you alright?"

"Sonic? Where are you?" came the fox's reply from within the dome. "I can't see a thing!"

"I'm outside!" Sonic shouted, though the light wasn't actually making much of a noise and he knew Tails could probably hear him if he spoke normally. He tried to put a hand against it, but couldn't get it close enough. "I can't get through it buddy. What happened?"

"I don't exactly know, I put the emerald down next to the Drive, I must have knocked them off the wing while I was looking for my tools. They broke, and then this happened, I thought I was in the Special Zone for one moment!"

"How?"

"I figured out what the emerald is, it's a part of one of the Star Posts that used to be in this Zone." Tails rambled on. "The emerald is the device that sits in the post's head, the shape refracts the energy into a portal! So it's not a Chaos Emerald, but it worked like a doorway to them!"

"Tails, I think you should be more worried that you might be in there right now?" Sonic shook his head, leaning against the energy barrier.

"Oh, well of course, but don't you think it's interesting how an emerald led to the Emeralds a long time ago?"

"Tails, can you use that curious mind of yours to figure out how to get out already?"

"I think the Drive reacted with the emerald and it made this strange effect. Without the rest of the Star Post to focus the energy, it's a bubble!"

"TAILS!" Sonic yelled.

"Oh! Um, well I don't think we're actually inside the Special Zone, I can see the grass and the Tornado..." Tails trailed off, then gave a nervous chuckle. "We might need to fix that!" When Sonic didn't answer, the fox realised he had gone off at a tangent again. "Oh, well, it might fade on its own. I was only in the Special Zone for a second, then there was a green flash, then I was back here, so it stands to reason that without its focus it can't maintain the link. Give it a minute."

A minute? Sonic snorted. A minute was far too long. He was glad Tails was alright, but he wanted him out of there. The hedgehog took a moment to take a relaxing breath, before backing up a short distance. He stepped back with one foot, pushed on it, and propelled himself forwards, towards the shield. At the last moment he curled up into a ball, and span into the side of the energy, hiss momentum pressing him against it instead of bouncing him off. It resisted the attack, but the light was growing less blinding.

Before it built up again, and exploded outwards with a sudden scream, propelling him in a blur of blue through the air and into the top of a palm tree. He drooped over the leaves, groaning and rubbing his ears from the unusual noise the barrier had made when it broke. Why hadn't it gone boom? Boom he could handle, screaming he could not. Shaking his head, he looked towards where the light had been, and breathed a sigh of relief. Tails was fine, the Tornado had only received minor damage. Well, kind of, as half of the wings on one side had been severed when they'd been caught outside the barrier. The children were fine...

Sonic had to double take. Children? Human children? Where there hadn't been any with Tails, as far as he knew, before he'd gone running off to play? The hedgehog frowned, suspicious. He saw Tails approach the figures, and pull a tool of some sort on them. Were they robots? It was hard to tell from several hills away in the top of a tree, so he started to slide carefully down the trunk; curiosity winning over concern as the boy with the white t-shirt and the spiky haircut sat up, but didn't harm Tails. The girl was soon sitting up too, while the dark skinned child still lay there. Sonic dropped the last foot to the ground, watching how Tails seemed quite relaxed; he hadn't taken to the air.

Sonic thought back over the light, and how the fox had mentioned being in the Special Zone for a moment. Humans couldn't use the Star Posts, as they couldn't use Chaos. Eggman had machines to help but the children didn't look like they had anything like that. Except for the thing Tails was holding, anyway. Sonic nodded; if he wanted answers he'd have to come and look, himself.

He wasn't expecting the dark haired boy to jump to his feet and glare defensively at him as he stopped in a cloud of dust next to Tails, however.

* * *

><p>Eggman watched from his hidden position above the group, just as confused the the hedgehog. He couldn't get much closer as there was a chance movement from his egg-o-matic would have drawn their attention. This also meant he could not hear what they were saying, but from the body language he could tell neither group trusted each other. That was interesting to him. Most of the planet knew of Sonic; especially the children. To see three that didn't was curious indeed.<p>

It seemed like some time before they decided to trust each other, evidenced by Sonic's loud, cheerful laughter ringing out. They left the area together, Sonic and Tails explaining something while the children were looking around as if they'd never seen Rings before. Eggman brushed a hand along his moustache as he pondered their curiosity. A small, familiar glint in the grass of sunlight reflecting from metal caught his eye, so he piloted the egg-o-matic down to it and picked the palm sized device up.

"Well well, this is a surprise."

He grinned toothily at it, and started looking around for the emerald and Drive in the grass near the crippled Tornado.

_TBC_

* * *

><p><em>Author's note<em>: Hi there, long time no A/N! I figured I'd get the introductions out of the way before I added any notes. This is my first fic involving Danny Phantom characters, which is a bit of a new thing for me. I'll try my best to keep everyone in character though! As you may have noticed, part 1 and part 2 are written as if they're taking place simultaneously. There will be several shifts in whom the narrative is focusing on throughout the story, especially in instances where the characters are split up. It's a new way of writing, for me, so please bear with me as I hope it works out. Feel free to leave reviews and such! Hope you enjoy :)


	3. Making Plans

**Cross Collision**

Part 3: Making plans

* * *

><p>The hedgehog and the human glared at one another; blue spikes and black hair bristling, emerald green and sky blue eyes matching expressions. Both had their feet braced against the ground, and their fists clenched, but not raised any higher than their waists. They eyed each other up, both subtly watching the other for the first movement, both not so subtly vying for the other to back down first.<p>

The fox watched them, edging over to the girl who had stared at him just a moment before; if her friend was that snappy, he certainly wasn't going to talk to him first. The girl sighed, irritated.

"Danny!"

"Huh?" The boy straightened and looked back at her, the harsh glare gone from his eyes in an instant.

"Stop it, you're the one who noticed where we are... or aren't. You should know better than to judge from appearances."

"I like this girl. She uses her brain, Sonic."

"Pfft, he started it." The hedgehog folded his arms and tapped a foot impatiently.

"Don't mind Danny, he's just really jumpy. My name's Sam, I take it you got that chain off of us?" The girl held a hand out to the fox, who put the chain on the floor to shake it.

"Yeah, it was child's play. I'm Miles Prower, but everyone calls me Tails. Nice to meet you." The fox laughed, waving his namesakes behind him. "That's Sonic the Hedgehog, but you probably know about him."

"Um... not really... We're new around here, I guess..." Sam reached behind her and shook the boy who was still asleep. "Get up, already!"

"Do I have to?" he whined as he stretched, yawning loudly. "Dude I feel like I've been sleeping on the ground."

Sonic burst out laughing, a cheerful, loud note that echoed in the breeze. He relaxed and smirked at the third of the humans, who simply stared, slack jawed at him.

"Well that's probably because you have!" he said, chuckling.

"And this is Tucker."

"What kind of g-" Sam elbowed Tucker in the ribs, motioning to Sonic and Tails as she introduced them. The geek rubbed his chest and waved sheepishly. "Uh, hi... Um... Danny? Sam? Where are we?"

"What do you mean? This is the Emerald Hill Zone, only one of the best Zones ever!" Sonic laughed again. "Where are you guys from?"

"Amity Park..." Danny replied, still looking puzzled as he looked around them. "... which this is not."

"Amity Park? Can't say I've ever heard of it." Sonic rubbed his chin, thinking.

"And we haven't heard of this Emerald Hill Zone." Sam frowned. "What country is it in?"

"Country? No, this is Westside Island."

"Never heard of that, either..."

"Sonic," Tails started, picking the chain up as he got to his feet, "I think we should go back to my place. I need to repair the Tornado before we can leave Westside Island anyway."

"True." Sonic glanced at the aircraft with a hint of irritation, before shrugging it off. He looked back at his friend, while the humans cringed at the cleanly cut wing of the bi-plane. "You sure you wanna trust these guys, little bro?"

"I think we can. They're just lost, it seems."

"Cool." Sonic looked back at them, his gaze passing over the trio as he smiled. "Well, if you guys promise you aren't gonna try destroy and or take over the world, I'll give you a chance."

"Oh? You thought we were gonna?" Sam smiled slightly as she stood up, helping the still surprised Tucker to his feet. "Sorry for any confusion there, we're not up to anything, I promise."

"Yeah, we're just kids, what harm are we gonna do?"

Sonic raised an eyebrow, smirking. "Good point. Humans aren't generally strong enough to pose a threat to my world." He looked at Danny, and his mouth twitched, before he chuckled again. "Come on, Tails makes some wicked chilli."

"Chilli?" Danny smiled in response. "Awesome!"

"Did you say food? Then count me in!" Tucker joined in.

Tails groaned. "Why have I been volunteered to cook again?"

Sam sighed. "Boys."

* * *

><p>Danny listened to Tucker and Sam arguing in hushed whispers, while he sat to one side, flipping through a book he'd found next to a model rocket. They'd separated from Sonic and Tails after food, as they all wanted to discuss what the animals had mentioned in their attempts to help figure out where they'd come from. The manual, as it turned out, was just a list of basic parts and operation instructions for the damaged plane in the fields. But he read it anyway, in an attempt to stay out of the conversation.<p>

Tucker was trying to get his PDA back from Sam, who had snatched it away and was now holding him at arm's length. Danny rolled his eyes; it was a familiar situation. Mostly. Apart from being in the house of a talking two tailed fox and having just had dinner with something that called itself a hedgehog but looked nothing like one, that is. But when answered with the fact that he was hard for them to see as being a hedgehog, Sonic had burst out in fits of giggles and told them they were far too strange to be humans too.

Danny sighed, finding it hard to concentrate on the book. Things just weren't adding up.

"-on't you agree, Danny?"

"Huh?" the halfa finally noticed Tucker was actually speaking to him now, though how long he had been doing so he couldn't say. "Sorry, what?"

"Were you even listening?"

"Honestly? No, not really. Was it important?" Danny closed the manual and put it back where it had come from.

"We were trying to figure out what happened." Sam sighed, sounding like she'd been arguing with Tucker, without any help from Danny, for some time. "By all rights, we should be in the Ghost Zone."

"But we're not."

"No, we're not. I don't know where we are. Sonic says he has no idea where America is, but apparently he's been to every part of this planet."

"I don't trust him."

"And Tucker's been pointing that out for the past ten minutes."

"You don't?" Danny blinked at Tucker, who shook his head. "Why not? He seems alright."

"He's got a strange look in him."

"You mean because he's a blue hedgehog?"

"No! I mean in his face! Like he's older than he seems or something. Like he hides things!"

"He says he's a hero and world famous. There's probably a reason." Sam answered Tucker before Danny could input his own opinion. "Danny has his secrets too!"

"Please don't bring me into this one, Sam. I'd rather just lay low at least until we're certain what's gone wrong. These guys aren't ghosts, and I'm not fighting anyone who I'm not certain about." Danny shuddered. "That's dad's job."

"Well, let's recap what we know, now we have your attention, Danny."

Danny helped them build the list; The two creatures they'd met were a fox and a hedgehog, though they acted more like humans; Tucker pointed out that the term was 'anthropomorphic', which got him just blank stares. The place they were in now was a tropical paradise called the Emerald Hill Zone, and Tails lived in a small town near the beach; when asked where Sonic lived, the pair of them had shrugged. They were on Westside Island, in the Southern Ocean, and the world map Tails had shown them bore little resemblance to their own Earth, despite sharing the name.

Then his friends started to argue about whether it was an alien world or an alternate dimension, and Danny lost all interest; only speaking up to suggest support for the dimension idea, with the Ghost Portals being focused dimensional rips. His eyes wandered around the room while he let his friends debate the best way of figuring out a way back home; or at least to the Ghost Zone, since they could figure it out from there.

"Don't you think there's something odd about Sonic?"

"Oh for the love of... Tucker, we're not talking about that!"

"He clashed with Danny like north and north, and they haven't met before!"

"He just startled me, that's all." Danny spoke up with a huff. "One second he wasn't there, the next he was. And I think we confused him just as much, didn't he tell us he thought we were gonna hurt his friend?"

"... That's true..." Tucker scratched his head, trying to think things over. "Do you think we might still be in the Ghost Zone? Just, one of the really normal looking realms?"

"No."

"You sound so certain." Sam commented, and Danny nodded in response.

"I'd know. Besides, if we were, there'd be Skulker or someone hot on my tail." Danny rolled his eyes. "So no, I'm pretty sure we're not." A puff of frost passed between his teeth, and he blinked.

"Wasn't that-"

"Yeah..."

"So we ARE in the Ghost Zone?"

"No, it doesn't work there..."

A shrill scream came from outside the building, and the trio ran to the window, looking for what was causing it. Animal people ran in all directions, as a formless green glob swooped down, chasing them around. Danny frowned, turning away from the window.

"You gotta help them, Danny..."

"How? I'll stick out like a sore thumb and bam, there goes my identity!"

"Danny, they're in trouble!"

Danny looked at Sam, who was still pressed against the glass. Reluctantly, he sighed, and closed his eyes. "... I'm going-"

"-to kick your glowing butt!" came the cry from outside.

The teen broke concentration, and ran back to the window, joining Sam and Tucker and they looked through it. A blur of blue charged past, rattling the glass in the frame, before rocketing in the other direction on the other side of the crowd. Fur and feathers waved in the wind caused by the object, and it stopped dead still a few feet away from the ghost, grinning.

Danny's jaw dropped, before he laughed and ran outside to get a better view, swiftly followed by Sam and Tucker. They stood shock still on the doorway, next to Tails was pinching between his eyes like he was trying to stop a headache, watching Sonic as he folded his arms, waiting...

Then the ghost attacked.

* * *

><p>Sonic sighed as Tails chattered on about the way the cut of an emerald refracted light or something. The hedgehog wasn't an idiot, but he left all the technical stuff to the fox for a reason. After the fifteenth bored groan didn't dissuade Tails from continuing, Sonic concentrated on the chilli dog he'd swiped from the table when the humans had asked to be left alone a moment.<p>

He wasn't worried about them causing trouble, they seemed alright enough and he trusted his, (or, in this case, Tails'), judgement when it came to strangers. Though the way that one boy had jumped to his feet in a smooth movement had startled him, he guessed he'd just been a more athletic human. He had relatively the same build as Sonic did, given the species and size difference, of course, so the hedgehog wasn't too shocked by it. Humans were usually pretty dull, so these strange ones interested him.

"They're taller than most of the other humans, aren't they?" A casual observation.

"Well, except Eggman, and the Soleannans." Tails answered, smoothly shifting from a theory about dimensional travel to the conversation. "Do you think they might have come from there?"

"No, they seem pretty certain they came from that other place." Sonic shrugged, looking up from his half eaten snack at his friend. "I think they came from the Special Zone."

"Sonic, no one actually lives there."

"That we know of. That place is huge, Tails." Sonic smiled back, wagging a finger. "Not that it matters. The kids say they're lost, and we'll help them back home. Simple!"

"And what about you and Danny's little altercation?"

"My wha-? Oh. He surprised me, that's all. I guess he thought we were going to hurt his friends. You know, for humans who claim to have never seen anything like us before, those three are taking the whole 'entire planet of us, you humans are the odd ones out' thing pretty well."

"Maybe they're just hard to confuse."

"Maybe..."

Sonic ran a gloved hand under his chin, pondering things over. He supposed if he'd ended up in a world full of humans, he might have had the same, instantly defensive reaction that the teenagers had had. Sure, they seemed harmless, and he was quite happy to trust their promise, but there was something strange about them. Sonic couldn't tell what, exactly. Maybe it was just a lingering effect from them having arrived by Chaos.

"Sonic, how do you think we can get them back?"

"Get another Star Post part, get another of those Chaos Drives, smash them together?" Sonic shrugged. "It worked once, it might work again."

"But we don't know why it worked like that, and the Special Stage never came with a green light before."

"Eggman said that Drive was experimental. So maybe we can just borrow another one from him."

"You mean steal one."

"No. Borrow. I'll give it back afterwards. It just might be in a few pieces, that's all!" Sonic laughed.

"Well, I suppose we could give it a try." Tails scratched his ear, thoughtfully. "But how do you suggest you're gonna get one? Smash your way through steel doors that were built specifically to keep you out?"

"Yup!"

"Sonic, you really need to think these things through better. We have to plan this."

"Or I could wait until Eggman builds another of those crazy gun things and nab it again."

"Or that."

Tails sighed as Sonic started to list the ways he knew to bother Eggman, trying to think of a good way into the base, as he counted them off on his fingers. The fox wasn't even certain that it would work, but it was their only idea for the time being, and Sonic wasn't much for thinking up back up plans before he needed one. He couldn't deny that the hedgehog worked better on the fly, making up ideas as he went. It frustrated Tails and the rest of Sonic's allies to no end, but it usually worked out just fine in the end.

He turned his head towards the dining area, where the door had been closed between the rooms to give the children some privacy as they spoke. Like Sonic, Tails wasn't worried about the humans, he was more curious. They'd explained where they'd come from; a place called Amity Park, in some place called America, in an alternate version of Earth where foxes and hedgehogs didn't talk. Tucker had taken an interest in the Miles-Electric, so Tails had let him look at it, showing them a map of the world on it. When their faces had fallen at seeing it, he'd felt a little guilty, though it wasn't unexpected. His question to Sonic earlier had been to humour his observation; any fox worth his tail could see the humans were completely out of place.

Sonic watched Tails as he thought, waiting for the next question about his plan, but the moment the little fox opened his mouth, a chorus of screams broke out. Tails slammed his jaws shut, looking befuddled for a moment, before the pair of them realised the screaming was coming from outside, not the fox's dinner. Sonic flicked his ears, and ran outside. He had barely stepped off the doorstep before he had to stop and stare at the cause of the commotion.

"Oh man, awesome. Tails! You gotta come see this!"

"What is it, Sonic?" Tails saw it and stopped at Sonic's side. "Whoa..."

"I know! I wonder what it is!"

"It's probably dangerous. Sonic, we have to think this-" the fox face-palmed as Sonic ran forward, heading straight for the glowing green glob, "-through..." he finished, talking to himself.

"Hey ugly!" Sonic shouted as he ran around the crowd, setting up a tail wind that blew fur, feathers and accessories all over the place. "You know what?"

The scream from the creature was Sonic's only answer, and he laughed.

"I'm going to kick your glowing butt!"

He charged on another circuit of the street, before skidding to a dead stop in front of it, staring it straight in its beady red eyes. A roar of cheering rose up from the crowd, and Sonic folded his arms, standing perfectly still, inviting the blob to make the first move...

… He noticed the kids at the door, and winked at them, as the beast dived towards him.

* * *

><p>Vlad Masters grumbled to himself. First he'd broken his portal; that blasted half-ghost had probably done it somehow. Then he had lost said half-ghost; his tracking device may have been still transmitting video and audio, but it had lost all location data. Then, the tracking device itself had stopped working. And now, Jack Fenton was on the phone, babbling on about ghosts and fudge. And, at least once, about a ghost made out of fudge. Vlad couldn't even figure out how the ghost hunter had got his number in the first place. The only reason he hadn't hung up on him yet was he could hear Jack's wife in the background.<p>

All in all, Vlad was not having a good day.

He listened to Jack talk to his wife; the man had put a hand over the mouthpiece or something, as both voices were muffled; but the mere fact they were conversing irritated him to such an extent that the pen he was holding snapped in his grip. The big buffoon shouted back down the phone, as if he'd thought Vlad had put it down. He hadn't, but it was tempting. He cried out and rubbed his ear; being half-ghost himself his hearing was sensitive enough as it was, without being yelled at.

"WHAT?" Vlad snapped back down the phone, once he was sure he could hear again.

"Vladdie, you know all those Ghost Portal notes you took back in college? Do you still have them?"

"The ones before you completely ruined my life?" Vlad hissed venomously, but Jack didn't seem to notice. "No, I lost them." He lied, none too subtly. "Why do you want to know?"

"Well I... uh..." Jack trailed off, obviously attempting to think. Vlad gave an unimpressed snort at the thought of it. "Maddie? Why did we want to know again?"

Vlad held his breath as he heard Maddie take the phone off of Jack, and she snapped harshly down it. "Because we can't open the Portal, not that you care. We have inventions to test and if you're not going to help, Jack can hang up. Right. Now."

"Oh Maddie..." Vlad started, but found himself talking to Jack again. He coughed. "Well... I can have another look, since you're such dear friends..." he dragged the last two words out sarcastically, in an attempt to point out to Jack that he was definitely not his friend, but the tone went unnoticed by the ghost hunter.

"Awesome! Thanks, Vladdie my man! Let me know what you find, okay? Okay! See-"

Vlad hung up before Jack could finish his sentence. Or start talking again. He walked across the halls, hands clasped behind his back, as he thought over what the idiot had said. If there was one thing he knew for certain about the Fentons, it was that their portal was stable. They'd had to build a shielded door to close the thing, but from the way they'd had to ask their old college classmate, he guessed it was more than the door being stuck.

Vlad phased through the wall and into his secret lab, heading directly for his own portal. He'd used the notes, and some stolen information from Fenton Works, to create his copy, and had been lucky enough to find a spot where the portal would be just as stable as the Fentons' one. Well, aside from that little accident earlier, that is; he was thankful that the Fentons hadn't yet noticed Danny's absence, Jack had, to date, been the only guy to resist his powers and beat him down. If the idiot found out he was behind making his son disappear, Vlad would have to make sure he was as far away as possible. The readout next to the doorway showed it had restarted successfully; at least Jack's call had been enough of a waste of time. Shifting into his ghost form, he commanded his automated systems to attempt to start the portal.

"Portal active, dear heart." the synthesized copy of Maddie Fenton's voice echoed.

"It isn't open. What's going on?" Vlad stared at the tunnel that went a few feet back into the wall; the machine wasn't even giving off the humming it would normally.

"Unknown, my love."

"Well well well, I don't know who you are there, but-" Vlad turned around with a start; the new voice was an older man's, not that of his computer. He flew over to the console it was playing from as it continued; the video was still showing static, but the sound was playing, albeit run through with crackling from being transmitted from wherever it was. "- I've taken the liberty of fixing this little tracking device of yours..."

"Who... Hmm..." a wicked smirk played across Vlad's face as he considered the meaning of this strange new voice.

The day had just got a little better...

_TBC_


	4. Haunted

**Cross Collision**

Part 4: Haunted

* * *

><p>The wind blowing around the street wasn't natural; it was focused in one area, spinning into a cobalt twister in the centre of the road. The crowd watching had to back away as it drew nearby bits of debris into it, only to shoot them out of the top and have them rain back down to the road a distance away. Flashes of green could be seen within the spiral, and as Sonic stopped suddenly, the blur that had traced his movement faded away, leaving the glowing blob spinning.<p>

Sonic grinned at it once it stopped moving and wobbled around in the air dizzily instead. The hedgehog took a step back and ran at the creature, but rapidly found himself breaking inches from a nearby wall. The tip of his nose tapped it and he blinked at the brick, before whirling around and jumping into the air as a hand formed itself out of the creature's side, swinging towards him as a fist.

Sonic kicked his heels in mid-air to change direction, and span directly down at the top of the creature, as it vanished. He yelped, more in surprise than in pain, as he uncurled before his spin started to burrow underground. He landed on his feet, and looked all around, confused.

"Hey, ugly, where'd you go?" he said, cracking his knuckles together, "we aren't done playing yet!"

"Sonic, if you keep attacking it head on you're gonna get hurt!"

"Psh!" Sonic shrugged the notion away.

"But you can't hit it!" Tails insisted.

"That's why they invented improvising!"

"Sonic, stop!"

"No way, I got a job to do!"

Sonic jogged on the spot and his legs began to blur, creating a sound like a revving engine, before he rocketed forwards in a flash of blue and a gust of wind. Tails shut his eyes just before the sound of shattering glass and a yelp was heard. Then there was silence, so he slowly opened them again. Sonic wasn't seen, but one of the nearby buildings had just lost a window. Tails gaped at it as Sonic climbed out, brushing glass fragments from his spikes.

The glob laughed, loudly, but Sonic ignored it as he cleared the shards from his gloves.

"Uh... does he always try and head-butt things like that?" Tucker leaned towards the fox to mutter it.

"Well, yeah. Those spikes don't work at a range, after all." Tails waved at Sonic, who ignored him too.

"You know that's not gonna work right?"

"Obviously... But Sonic's not usually one to think about the obvious." Tails turned his attention back to his friend, who was revving up again. "Sonic! Blue tornado seems to be the only thing you can do to it, it just phases you through it otherwise!"

"I did notice that! Okay, one super speed spin cycle coming right up!"

As Sonic bolted forwards and caught the creature in a spin again, Tails scratched an ear and looked confused, half watching Sonic and half trying to think of a solution. Tails didn't really know what the thing was, just that it didn't seem too bothered by Sonic and that it wanted to torment the locals. He flicked the other ear backwards to listen to Sam muttering something to Danny in a low voice, and turned his head in time to see her pull a... lipstick from a pocket on her skirt.

The fox frowned; the green tube was practically the opposite of the purple gloss she was wearing already, and while he didn't complain about the fact her, and Tucker and Danny, weren't worried about the glowing green thing that was leading Sonic on a runabout, it just didn't seem the time to be doing her make up.

"Allow me."

"Sonic! Drop to the floor like, right now!" Tucker shouted.

"Allow you to wha- whoa!" Tails ducked as Sam swung the tube above his head, shooting a beam of energy out of it.

Sonic had stopped running a split second before the beam hit the creature, knocking it back into a wall. He blinked at the dazed glob, watching it vanish from view. Scratching his head, he turned back to the humans and Tails, seeing Sam blow smoke from the top of the gloss and put it back in her pocket, while Tails stared at it until it left view. Shrugging, the hedgehog zipped across to them, saluting as he stopped.

"I think it's gone."

"Mhmm..." Danny mumbled in agreement, and the hedgehog glanced at him, before looking back at Sam and Tails.

"What was that?"

"That's what I was gonna ask." Sonic added to Tails' question.

"Fenton Lipstick." Tucker grinned. "It's pretty nifty, you can fight ghosts and keep your lips moisturised at the same time!"

"... Ghosts?" Tails burst out laughing, dropping to the floor in fits of giggles. "G- ghosts... ahahah! Oh my gosh that's priceless!"

"Tuckerrrrr." Danny sighed under his breath. "Now the talking animals think we're crazy or something!"

"And if you said that to your sister, she would too." Tucker snorted.

"I don't think you're crazy." Sonic chuckled. "Tails just hasn't seen ghosts before and doesn't believe me when I say I have. But that thing can't have been one, I have to agree with him there!"

"Well it was. That's why the Lipstick hit it." Sam folded her arms, and Sonic held his hands up.

"Hey, if you guys say ghosts are green, and I can't hit the thing that's green, then who am I to argue?" Sonic smiled and nudged Tails with a toe. "Get up little bro, I told you so!"

"You told me the things you saw looked like flying bedsheets." Tails giggled, sitting up reluctantly. "And I still think they were just that! Sheets on strings! That green thing was probably just a hologram Eggman sent to bother you."

"Don't underestimate the bedsheets!" Sonic pushed Tails over again, where he promptly started laughing once more. The hedgehog sighed. "So, are you guys certain that was a ghost? Cause we don't do the whole haunted thing in Emerald Hill, it'd ruin the tourism!"

"My parents are ghost hunters." Danny answered, somewhat reluctantly. "So we deal with them all the time."

"Ahhh... Yeah, now see, that I have some trouble believing. You can't touch ghosts to hunt them, you just leave them alone." Sonic chuckled.

"Well you can touch them where we're from so they need catching, or they hurt people."

"Really now? Well, I can't let that happen. Soooooo," Sonic leaned forwards, grinning up at them, "let's see that gizmo you had!"

"Well, I guess it can't do any harm... Would it be okay, Danny?"

Sam pulled the make up from her pocket again as Danny nodded, and handed it to the hedgehog, her hand looking minuscule in comparison to Sonic's much larger ones. Danny watched as Sonic eyed it over, flipping it over in one hand while scratching his ear with the other. The hedgehog was shuffling awkwardly, as if he was anxious to move to another spot. He was leaning slightly to the left, most of his weight on that foot, and Danny guessed that if something were to startle him, Sonic would be able to start running from a standstill in that position. It reminded him of his own ready stance, where he stood dropped down slightly as he prepared to take off flying if he had to. Sonic flipped the Lipstick into the air, before catching it and firing it at a nearby tree; one of many planted in rows along the road they stood on; and shot a leaf off of a branch with it. Emerald eyes glittered as he smirked, passing it back to the humans. Danny took it off of him instead, while Sam was staring incredulously at the leaf fluttering towards the ground.

Danny shuddered under Sonic's unblinking stare, though it lasted only a second, it seemed like forever. Tucker was right, there was something unnerving about it. The hedgehog's laugh broke the momentary tension though, as he pointed a gloved finger at the weapon Danny held in his hand. Tails was eyeing it up now, while Tucker was watching Sonic cautiously. Sam simply looked offended that Sonic had attacked the innocent tree.

"That's an interesting weapon." Sonic commented, bluntly. Tails blinked at him.

"Sonic, you hate weapons."

"Tails, I'm sure I know that." The hedgehog rolled his eyes, and smiled back at the humans. "Just don't go burning your faces off by mistaking it for a real make up, or something."

"We haven't yet." Danny smiled, relaxing as Sonic grinned and turned around, waving at the crowds that still lingered.

"Dudes, show's over!"

"Sonic! Can I have an autograph?"

"Uh-"

"Can you take a photo with me?"

"Well I'm kind of busy-"

"Who are they, Mister Sonic?"

A curious little rabbit walked over to them, with some sort of blob of blue wearing a red bow tie sitting on top of her head. Danny watched as the crowd dispersed reluctantly when Sonic paid attention to the little girl, obviously he knew her and was going to talk to her over the crowd. He smiled nervously at the tan rabbit, who waved happily back at him. The blob on top of her head waved too, and Danny grimaced at its deep black eyes. Tucker smiled at it though.

"Hey, it looks like a tamagotchi!" Tucker grinned.

"A... what?" Danny blinked. Tucker did the gadgets, not him.

"Huh? Oh no mister, this is a Chao, his name's Cheese! I'm Cream, it's nice to meet you!" she bowed politely at them, and Danny chuckled.

"Cream and Cheese?" Sam voiced, cringing at the terrible name combination.

"That's right. Um, may I ask what your names are?"

"Uh... I'm Sam, this is Danny and this is Tucker."

"Sam's a boy's name." Cream noted, with Cheese nodding in agreement, and Danny and Tucker both burst out laughing as Sam scowled. Even Sonic and Tails had to grin at the child's bluntness. "It's nice though! I think it suits you!"

"Um... thank you, Cream."

"These are some friends, Cream. What are you doing out here anyway?"

"Well, mother and I were in the shops when the thingy appeared. I thought I could help but you made it go away before I could get mother to let me out of the store."

"Hey, that's cool by me kiddo, wouldn't want you to get hurt, your mother would string me up by my tail if you did." Sonic waved at the older rabbit that had just emerged from a store nearby. She bowed her head at him. "Go on, 's all cool here Cream, if I ever need your help then I'll make sure to let you know, okay?"

"Okay Mister Sonic!" Cream smiled and bowed. "Have a nice day, you too Tails, Sam, Danny, and Tucker!"

Unsure what to do, Danny led the way and bowed back, his long fringe flopping over his face as he did so. Cream giggled as his friends followed suit. She bid them a fond farewell, and with Cheese flying behind her, suspended by little pink wings, she ran back over to her mother. Sonic walked past the humans and back into Tails' house, collapsing into the first chair he found. The others followed in after him, and sat around the room, watching the hedgehog who, for all purposes, looked like he had just fallen asleep.

"She's very polite." Sam commented, "but do you really mean you'd call her if you needed her help? What would she do, cheer you on?"

"Actually, yeah." Sonic opened one eye and smiled at her. "She has this way with Chao, and they have all sorts of interesting abilities. She's also pretty good at talking robots out of their programming."

"Robots?" Tucker's attention picked up, and Sonic watched him dart his attention between Tails and himself. "Actual robots? Like, moving, walking, laser firing death machines or those remote controlled things that fight on TV for fun?"

Sonic laughed. "Sometimes the radio controlled ones, but usually AI controlled death machines."

"You let a child fight robots?" Danny's eyebrow raised sceptically until Sonic grinned.

"I don't see a problem with it. Besides, me and my buds keep her out of any real trouble."

"I guess that's okay then..."

"Come on, back up, what are these robots like? How big are they? What do they do? Can I get one anywhere is it compatible with my PDA will I be able to program it and-"

"Dude!" Sonic threw his hands in the air to silence Tucker before he launched into a Tails class rant. "I don't talk about the 'bots. You wanna talk about them, chat with my buddy here when I'm not around, old Eggman's sent enough of them at me that the novelty wore off years ago and now they just bore me."

"You talk to them when you've broken them."

"Tails! I thought we agreed never to mention that again!" Sonic's flail at the small fox made the humans laugh, and Sonic groaned. "Oh come onnnnnn! This isn't fair! If you guys don't stop laughing I won't share my plan to get you home!"

As the laughter slowly died down, the humans turned their attention to the hedgehog, who was still bristling slightly at Tails, and listened as Sonic divulged his plan. They didn't understand a good amount of it, but they wanted to know as much as they could. The only words that caught on their minds were 'Special Zone' and 'Chaos Drives'.

None of the people in the room noticed as a tiny spherical robot entered the open window and hid in the corner of the frame, focusing a miniature lens on them.

* * *

><p>"BEWARE!"<p>

The cry echoed throughout the store, and the pink hedgehog ducked as yet another pair of stilettos flew towards her, to embed themselves in the wall behind her. The floating human shaped thing flailed to the side as she swung the giant mallet she was holding into several pairs of shoes, propelling them through the air towards him.

"No, I think you're the one who should 'beware'!" she said, in a mocking impression of his voice.

"You cannot harm me, small pink and spiky one, for I am the Box Ghost, master of all things cardboard and square!" the creature screamed back at her, oblivious to the bemused expression on her face. He raised his hands, levitating several more boxes in front of him. "Now, face the wrath of my shoebox based DOOM!"

"Shoes? Cardboard boxes? Seriously?" Amy Rose swung her hammer, smashing every launched shoe back at the so-called ghost, who yelped and ducked. "Get lost, you're ruining my shopping trip!"

"Uhhmmm... VERY WELL! But only because you cannot be defeated by foot based weaponry!" the Box Ghost dropped the empty boxes on the hedgehog's head. "BUT I SHALL RETURN, and you will know the true power of the Box Ghost! BEWARE!"

The creature flew out through the window, leaving the store behind him in a mess. Amy's eye twitched as she looked around, hammer held in one hand while the other was balled up into a fist. The shop keeper peered over the top of the counter, followed by other customers who had hid with him. They watched the raging pink hedgehog nervously, until she noticed them, and put her free hand behind her head.

"Ahhh... sorry about your store... I'll... uh... be going now... Oh, I think I hear my darling Sonic calling me, lemme know if that creep comes back, I'll pound him into next Tuesday, okay bye!"

Amy rushed out of the door, dragging her hammer and the bag of clothes she'd brought in with her behind her, before the store's owner could ask her to help tidy up. She wondered where the floating freak had come from, before she decided that it made as good an excuse as any to give Sonic a call. Once she'd made it a good distance down the street, she pulled a cellphone out of her boot and flipped it open, dialling Tails' house.

"... hello?" came the hesitant answer from the fox. In the background there were two voices, arguing loudly.

"Is that Sonic shouting? Who's he shouting at?"

"Uh, no one special Amy..."

"If that's Amy, tell her to go away, I'm busy-" came the muffled scream in the background "-gimme my dog back, kid!"

"Nu-uh, Tails made it and said I could have it!" came a second voice Amy didn't recognise. She dismissed it as both Sonic and the stranger yelled and there was a loud crash.

"What did you want to say, Amy? You don't really call me." Tails mumbled, sounding fed up.

"Oh, there was some freak attacking Station Square and-"

"You can handle that can't you?"

"Let me finish Tails! Gosh!" Amy groaned. "Like I was saying, I couldn't touch him with my mallet! I think he called himself 'the Box Ghost' and demanded we hand over all shoe boxes in the shop 'unless we wished to suffer a demise most boxy.'"

"'The Box Ghost'?" Tails repeated, giggling. "That sounds-"

"-did you say 'Box Ghost'?"

"Aw yeah, I win!" Sonic shouted in the background, oblivious to the stranger's input in her call to Tails. Amy put her face in her hand as she continued.

"Mhmm... Who's with you Tails? Does he know this creep?"

"I... uh..." the was a moment of whispering, which Amy couldn't quite make out. "Yeah, we gotta go, I'll call you soon, Amy."

"Tails, wait-!"

The fox hung up, and Amy Rose found herself staring at the phone in confusion. Great, now what was she going to do?

Gloves reached through her bag and an overall wearing figure flew past, clutching her new trinket box in his grasp. She screeched in frustration.

"Give that back, freak!"

"BEWARE!"

* * *

><p>Doctor Eggman tossed the tiny screwdriver aside, grinning at the small device in his hand. It looked like a tiny robotic cockroach, though with a vaguely human shaped face. The scientist was curious; as far as he knew, he was the only person on Earth who could build devices of this complexity, bar Sonic's foxy friend, who usually designed things to resemble either himself, that annoying hedgehog, or any other of his friends, not humans. Another scientist would not have escaped his attention.<p>

He ran a chubby finger across the back of the robot, flicking the wing cases open and turning the device on. It whirred slightly, before turning invisible on his hand. Eggman chuckled, this little device was a source of intrigue. He did wonder if maybe the alternate dimension version of himself he'd encountered before had built it, but it didn't seem like his style. It was too subtle, and didn't bear the trademark moustached insignia both his counterpart and himself loved to put on their devices. He'd already noticed the lenses that made up the device's eyes, and the tiny microphone built in place of a mouth, before it had turned invisible. It seemed this thing could communicate to whomever had built it. He hadn't yet found evidence of speakers, but he was sure he'd find out soon enough whether it had them. He shifted his hand to ensure the device still rested there, the tiny weight was present despite it being perfectly transparent.

Grinning, Eggman cleared his throat loudly.

"Well well well, I don't know who you are there, but I've taken the liberty of fixing this little tracking device of yours..."

Eggman let his words trail off, as he waited for any sign of a response. This would tell him if it had speakers or not, and he put it down carefully on his workstation, where a red and black sphere opened up and looked down at it in as condescending a manner as a static faced robot could muster. Eggman ignored his assistant's quizzical noise as the robot flickered back into view, instead turning his attention to a nearby screen where he tinkered with the plans for a new device to stop Sonic.

"And what, pray tell, would that be, Master?"

"Hrrm?" Eggman had almost forgotten that Orbot had activated. "Oh, some little trinket I found whilst dealing with that pesky hedgehog today. I'm waiting to see if whoever made it can hear, and respond, to me."

"Why? It appears to be at a primitive level compared to your own designs. In such a circumstance normally you would dispose of it."

"True, but I am curious. I found it where Sonic found those humans." Eggman pointed at a window in the corner of the screen, which displayed a video of the hedgehog and his new friends in a room full of furniture.

"They're just children. Sonic talks to children all the time." Orbot responded, sarcastically.

"I know, but these kids came out of nowhere and the dark haired one intrigues me. Him and Sonic don't seem to get along, and I wonder if I can use that to my advantage."

"They're having tea together and they're fighting over a... ugh, chilli dog."

"Are you second guessing me, SA-55?" Eggman scrutinised the robot through blue glasses, and it leaned away. "Good."

Orbot was about to come up with another sarcastic response, but it gave a startled whirr as a tinny voice sounded out from some part of the robot. Eggman turned to face it once more, the wide smirk playing over his features.

"Don't you dare dispose of my robot, it cost a small fortune to make!" The adult male voice sounded rather offended at the idea, and Eggman gave an amused laugh at it.

"Ohohoho!" He chuckled, and leaned towards the device. "I do wonder, can you see me and my wonderful creation here?"

"Wonderful? You flatter me, Doctor."

"I was talking about my laboratory, imbecile."

"Hmph!" Orbot folded its arms indignantly, turning away from the device.

"No I can't, who are you, and who was that?"

"Pay him no mind. And I think I'm the one who should be asking you that question first. But, since your device is in my world, and I wouldn't want to be an ungracious host, I am the illustrious Doctor Eggman."

"Hmm. Vladimir Masters, at your service, good sir. Now, if you can just explain..." the voice, this 'Vladimir', sounded curious, "... what exactly you mean by 'your world'?"

"Ohohoho, first I want to know something I believe you may be able to answer."

"Will you repair the cameras on my device?"

"Of course, and I'll even attempt to find a way so that I may observe you too, mister Masters. It only seems fair..."

"... Fine..." Masters sounded irritated by this exchange, but obviously realised the potential for both parties. "What was your question, Doctor?"

"Tell me, who are the children that you had this tracking device on? And why are they in my domain?"

The sound from the device cut out as Eggman listened, waiting for Masters to come up with the best way to answer his question. The scientist grinned, this was becoming a most eventful day. First he'd discovered a whole new source of energy, which even Sonic seemed unable to distinguish from the more familiar Chaos energy, and now he had a potential ally that he could exploit. Of course, there was always the possibility that the answer Masters came up with would be a lie, but Eggman could out-lie the best of them.

He listened with baited breath as the speakers crackled back into life...

...This was going to be an interesting day indeed.

_TBC_


	5. Running with it

**Cross Collision**

Part 5: Running with it

"Box Ghost?"

"Yeah...?"

"A ghost... that haunts boxes?"

"... Yeah."

"That's ridiculous!"

Sonic burst out laughing, as Danny buried his face in his hands in exasperation. Tails still looked sceptical at the whole concept of ghosts, but watched the humans curiously. They didn't seem to be joking, and after that amorphous blob had attacked Emerald Town, followed by Amy calling to mention she had been unable to hit some floating idiot, he couldn't deny something was going on.

"You know a Box Ghost?" Tails asked them.

"Unfortunately, yeah. He's not much more than a minor annoyance though." Tucker answered, waving a hand as if holding a tube. "We normally just suck him into the Fenton Thermos and that's that. He's pretty weak."

"But... he's really a Ghost?"

"Yeah, that's what we've been saying."

"He must've got got caught in that blast with us, Danny." Sam shook the dark haired boy, who muttered something that sounded like 'guess so'. She rolled her eyes. "Don't mind grumpy here, Box Ghost just tends to give him a headache."

"So he's not a threat?"

"Just a minor poltergeist, really. He can only attack with boxes-"

"-and things stored in boxes." Danny pointed out, raising a hand. "Including sharp and pointy things."

"And things stored in boxes. Yeah. But otherwise, he's harmless."

"Huh, I'll let Amy know then... Otherwise she's likely to destroy more things in collateral damage."

"Who's Amy?"

"The person who was on the phone."

"Ugh." Sonic cringed as he looked up from where he was laying on the floor, and Tails smiled.

"She heard you by the way, Sonic. I'm sure she'll be rushing to find you now she has a reason." Tails smiled. "Or she would, if she wasn't on the mainland."

"And for that, my spikes are truly thankful." After a short pause, Sonic clapped his hands together, bursting into a huge grin. "Right then! Let's get to action!"

Everyone jumped at the sudden cry from the hedgehog, who was suddenly standing by the door. The humans looked at each other, then at Tails, who jumped up, nodding at his friend. The fox took the closed Miles-Electric up from the nearby coffee table and ran over to Sonic, tails waving behind him. The duo smiled encouragingly at the humans, who all stood up in unison, watching them back. Sonic raised an eyebrow at them, casting an examining eye over them.

"You guys can stay here if you want, y'know."

"No way, if this will help us get home, you can count us in."

"Right Sam."

"Yup."

"We're going hunting rotten eggs, you know." Sonic said, flatly. "If you guys aren't able to fight robots, death machines, lasers, or move faster than motion sensors, I want you to stay with Tails when we get there."

"Sure... I guess... But what can we do to help?"

"We'll figure that out when we get there!" The hedgehog was smiling again as he opened the door, motioning them out of it with a wave of a hand. "Now c'mon, waiting around makes me edgy and we got a long way to go. You guys got everything you need?"

"Well... We have our homework..." Tucker said, grumpily, motioning to his backpack. "And I suppose that's all we have so lead the way, I guess!"

"As long as you aren't gonna rush off like you did earlier, no way we could keep up."

"Naa Sam, I wouldn't do that. Gotta keep you guys with the laser make up outta trouble after all!" Sonic chuckled and opened the door, motioning out with a chivalrous bow. "After you all."

"Thanks Sonic."

Sam smirked and stepped out of the door, followed by Tails, and a grumpy looking Tucker who had been dubbed temporary pack-mule by his friends and was carrying all of their bags. Sonic glanced back into the room, locking emerald eyes with sky blue.

"You coming, Danny?"

"Yeah... Hey, Sonic?"

"Hmm? C'mon, I don't like staying in one spot for long."

"Just wondered if I can ask something?"

Sonic's ears twitched and he chuckled, "Depends on the question, that does."

"How did you find you you can run like that anyway?"

"Heh, always have been able to. Got faster over the years, but my name is Sonic for a reason."

"Can anyone else move like you? It's a real cool skill."

"Thanks! And only one other can, but I'm the fastest. The other guy needs special equipment to keep up."

"Will we meet him?"

Sonic's face pulled into a strange, implacable expression as he answered. "I hope not. Every time we meet there's a race and it wastes time."

"Ah, okay then."

"Anything else?"

"... Naa, that's it I guess. So how far are we travelling?"

"Well..." Sonic put a hand to his chin, thinking for a moment, before pointing at the sky. "Probably a few hundred miles, that's all. Depends which base Eggman's in."

"He has more than one? I thought you were the hero and he was some sort of bad guy?"

"Well yeah, but the dude's got businesses to run and stuff, I'm only stopping the 'evil take over the world with robot armies' bit."

"Sounds familiar..." Danny muttered under his breath. Sonic's ears perked up, catching the whisper.

"Did you say something?"

"Nothing important! Well if it's that far, I guess you better lead the way!"

"Cool, come on, Tails'll wonder what happened if I don't get there before him! Want a lift?"

"What?"

Sonic grabbed Danny's wrist, an excited grin on his face. "I suggest you hold on with both hands, or you might lose your arm!"

"Huh? Wait, WHOA!"

Tucker and Sam stared, wide eyed, at the blue and white blur that blasted past them with a scream. Tails simply chuckled and motioned for them to follow him as he walked towards the shoreline, muttering about Sonic never being able to take things slowly.

* * *

><p>Jasmine Fenton was confused. She hated being confused.<p>

"Has anyone seen Danny?!" she called out to the rest of the house, in her search for her wayward brother.

"He's probably with his friends, dear!" came the voice of her mother, who had apparently ventured forth from the lab and was now attempting to cook some dinner. Jazz cringed at the thought of ectoplasmic sausages attacking again as she walked into the kitchen.

"But I tried calling Sam and Tucker and they're not answering their phones..." Jazz trailed off as Maddie chuckled.

"Oh Jazz, relax. Your brother will turn up for his curfew, you know that."

"Hmm... I suppose..."

"And if he doesn't, he's bound to call to tell us if he's staying around one of their houses." Maddie held up a recipe book. "Now, tell me what one you think I should make for dinner."

"Uh... Okay... I guess."

Jazz wasn't about to let her mother cook on her own, so she took the book and sat at the table, flicking through the pages, while Maddie dug through the refrigerator. The teenager couldn't shake the weird, confusing feeling that hung over her like a fog, no matter how many pictures of various cuts of ham she looked at. Normally Danny's friends would answer the phone, give her some lame excuse for her brother, and hang up before she could argue. But no one was complaining at her for being bossy and that puzzled her.

As she tried to rationalise answers in her head that didn't count for the fact that her half-ghost brother was probably off somewhere blasting ectoplasmic entities, there was a loud crash and a shout from the direction of the laboratory in the basement below. She watched as Maddie dived down the stairs, and rolled her eyes as the familiar scream of 'ghost!' was heard.

A lone, small blob floated up through the floor, and with barely a glance Jazz sucked it into the Thermos that was kept beneath the table in emergencies. Both her parents charged into the kitchen, aiming weapons in all directions.

"Did ya see it Jazz?! Where did it go?!" demanded her father.

Jasmine rattled the Thermos without looking up from the book. "Did you get the Portal working again then?"

"Good work Jazzy-Pants!" Jack completely ignored her question as he snatched up the Thermos, running back down to the lab with it in an orange jump-suited blur.

Maddie sighed and sat at the table with Jazz, shaking her head. "No, we haven't dearie. Vlad probably won't help us, though your father is adamant that he will."

"He might still help out." Jazz rolled her eyes and looked up at Maddie, who was peering at the page of the recipe book she had stopped on. Jazz passed it over to her. "Here, try this one."

"Jazz, that looks lovely! Good choice sweetie!" Maddie clapped and picked up the book, trotting over to the cupboards cheerfully.

"What was that crash?"

"It was your father accidentally knocking over the containment unit that had that ghost in it." her mother said casually. "Now could you give me a hand please?"

"Okay mom."

Jazz sighed as she stood up. Her mother was probably right, and besides, Danny did have a habit for getting out of trouble just as well as he got into it. Still, it didn't stop her from wondering just where he had gone.

No, Jazz did not like being confused at all.

* * *

><p>The Box Ghost floated through the floor, to be rewarded with a hammer to his face the moment he solidified. He flew through a wall, and didn't emerge in any form of a hurry. The bright pink hedgehog screeched in frustration.<p>

"Get back here!"

"I do not think so, for I am in possession of your box of trinkets, in which many shiny and visually appealing objects shall be stored!"

The Box Ghost waved a single gloved hand out of the wall, and Amy dived for the trinket box in it.

"And you shall not have it back, for the jewellery based powers it contains are now held by THE BOX GHOST! BEWARE!"

Amy crashed into the wall as the trinket box vanished into it with childish laughter. The pink hedgehog groaned and sat up, shaking her head, before looking up to see the ghost floating away down the road, gleefully clutching the box in his grasp. Part of her knew it would probably be best to simply let it go, and rationally go and get a cup of coffee instead.

Unfortunately for that ghost, Amy wasn't in a particularly rational mood.

The next thing anyone onlooking saw, was the floating human flying by very quickly, followed by a hammer throwing, very angry hedgehog.

It was all they could do to dive out of the way in time.

* * *

><p>Sonic was laughing loudly when Tails, Sam and Tucker finally caught up to them. Danny was standing there, with his hands running through his hair in an attempt to get it back to normal after the wind had blown it backwards. His friends started laughing too, and Danny made a noise of protest at them. Tails rolled his eyes and proceeded onwards ahead of them, towards the docks.<p>

"Come on, it's not funny!" Danny pouted as he finally scruffed his hair back into its normal position. "You guys didn't get dragged along by this loon!"

"Ahahahah!" Sonic stood up straight, shaking his head and holding a hand up to indicate he was finished. He smiled at the irritated human. "Not a loon, that's a loon over there," the hedgehog motioned to the passing bird, who didn't notice the gesture, "but yeah dude, you held on pretty well, and only screamed a little bit, so that was pretty cool. Just a shame your hair isn't as aerodynamic as my spikes are."

"You could have warned me."

"I could have, I guess. But that wouldn't have been as fun!"

"Come on Sonic, the boats will be arriving soon." Tails prompted.

The boat trip passed uneventfully, Sonic stayed in the middle of the decks as much as he could, while Tails sat nearby with a drink. Sam and Tucker were at the railings of the boat. Danny wandered around the deck, looking out over the water at the Island they'd just left, or towards the mainland they were heading towards, or just looking at the other passengers, who came in a variety of species it seemed. Sam waved him down from the railings where Tucker and herself stood, and Danny walked over.

"I think we've ended up in one of Tucker's comic books." Danny said, quietly, motioning over his shoulder to the anthros on the deck.

"I dunno, haven't really got any comics about turbo powered blue hedgehogs." Tucker shrugged. "Besides, this is too real. And you're the only one here who can actually possess things, so it's not like anyone could get a bunch of animals to talk."

"I Overshadow." Danny corrected. "Possession is a much nastier word."

"Hey I'm just joking, Danny. Anyway, Tails explained how we got here from this end, and we know roughly what happened our end, so it's just figuring out how it connects right?"

"I guess the modifications Vlad made messed up how his Ghost Portal linked to the Ghost Zone." Sam added. "I mean, the portals aren't the most stable things after all right?"

"Well our portals are more stable than any others, but yeah, dimensional rips are pretty weak." Danny confirmed, watching the water.

"I wonder if we will get back, really-" Tucker started, but paused as him and Sam didn't miss a beat catching Danny by his shirt and pulling him upright as he leaned a little further than he should have with the railing, "-whoa dude, I'm just talking possibilities, no need to take it like that."

"Thanks guys. But wow Tuck, don't scare me like that, I mean, it's nice here but, sheesh, I wanna get home some point!"

"Well, these two know what they're doing, right? Let's just help them, remember, we don't have anything else we can do." Sam stated. "So, let's just enjoy ourselves for now, okay?"

"Deal." Danny and Tucker said in unison.

Sonic watched them from where he sat; he couldn't see the water from where he was, which suited him just fine. They were in conversation about something, but he couldn't quite hear them from where he sat. Shrugging, he turned his attention back to Tails, who was talking about something to do with the base they were heading to, not that Sonic was really listening.

It gave him something to pay attention to that wasn't the water anyway.

"Sonic, are you even listening to me?" Tails sighed.

"Sure I am..."

"Then what did I just say?"

"... Uhh..."

"Sonic..." Tails shook his head. "I said once we get there, you're gonna have to try avoid causing attention for once so we can get into Eggman's stuff without any hassle."

"But that's no fun..."

"Maybe not, but it _is_ how we're gonna get a Drive without him, his robots, or you, breaking it."

"But I don't do stealthy..." Sonic snorted. "Stealth is slow."

"And you're fast, I know, but you're fast enough to avoid sensors. That's stealth; you don't need to smash every robot you see."

"Spoil sport."

"Heh. Think Eggman will be there when we get there?"

"Probably, he did kinda vanish when I beat him up. He's no doubt waiting for us." Sonic stretched, resting his hands behind his head. "So I don't think your stealthy idea will work for long."

"Well I still want you to try, we don't wanna cause trouble if we can avoid it, right?"

"Yeah yeah."

Soon the boat was drawing into the docks on the mainland, and Sonic was fidgeting by the time that Danny, Sam and Tucker had made their way over to him and Tails, ready to disembark and carry on their journey. There was a path cleared of people in front of Sonic, which told the humans to keep behind him as he focused on the exit. Tails warned them that Sonic would probably run off first, so they could stop in town and get anything they wanted while they waited for him to return.

Sure enough, once the door opened, Sonic was gone, and they found themselves taking a more leisurely pace towards the nearest café. As they sat down with drinks at a table outside, Sam looked around at the town; Tails had called it 'Emerald Coast', though she couldn't figure why, as it was more sand and palm trees than the green grass of the island they'd come from, but there was probably a reason. Tucker was quite happily eating an ice cream, holding the cone in one hand while fiddling with his PDA in the other. Danny was focusing on his soda, holding the cup as if it was about to jump up and run away.

As Tails ran them through the plan again, they were unaware that they were being watched from above...

_TBC_


	6. Hunted

**Cross Collision**

_Author's Note:_ For those wondering when I'll be uploading the next part, the only answer I can really give is Soon. I've been incredibly busy since I uploaded this part, and I have more things planned to do but I'll try my best. Just please don't rush me, as I have difficulty concentrating when I'm rushed and you don't want me to upload a substandard story, do you? Don't worry, this fanfic IS still in progress; if you want to notified as soon as I update it, log in and add it to your story alerts, so you get an email when the chapter is uploaded. Thanks for following it so far!

Part 6: Hunted

The Ghost Zone was silent. Not that anyone really spoke loudly outside of realms for fear of rousing the less pleasant creatures that floated in the green miasma between them. But no, this time, it was too quiet. There was no sound at all. The usual screams and groans prevalent in the world weren't to be heard anywhere.

Skulker scowled out at the silent zone, scanning it for any sign of potential prey, threats, or, for that matter, anything. But it seemed that everyone was hiding within their own respective realms, though from what, the hunter couldn't say. Though it was the same reason he was taking refuge in his own lair, he supposed, not that he was able to explain to himself why, either. Giving a disgruntled snort, he turned around and headed back into the skull shaped mountain that served as his abode.

Several technical devices lay around it; some designed for tracking, some designed for capture, and others designed for much less pleasant activities. Well, he thought with a smirk, less pleasant for his prey, anyway. He wandered over to one of the tracking devices, and started it up. It was a radar-like machine that was designed to scan the Ghost Zone for entities, though it wasn't very specific. Right that moment though, Skulker simply wanted to find out where everyone was. Without having to leave the safety of his own realm, of course.

While it scanned, he walked back over to one of the openings that made up the 'eyes' of his home, and resumed looking out towards the vast space beyond his forested island. A pair of binoculars emerged from the shoulder of his armour to aid him in his view, but they didn't bring anyone out into his line of sight. The machine behind him beeped, and he floated to it to see what it said.

"Odd..." The robotic ghost tapped the display, watching it with a confused scowl. "That shouldn't be there..."

Skulker extended his wings, and flew out of his lair, hovering above the mountain while he turned to look in the direction of the anomaly. The time for hiding, he decided, was past. He was going to hunt, and if he so happened to find that the confusion was being caused by something he could skin and mount on his wall, that would make it worth it. Knowledge was power, in the Ghost Zone, and that was enough to set him off looking for it.

"Now let's go see what-" Green eyes narrowed as they watched the bright light expand; a glance through the binoculars that emerged from his shoulder told him that it seemed to be emanating from the Ghost Portal that Plasmius owned. "It's growing at an alarming rate... Hmm." The binoculars slid away again. "Well, that can't be good... Maybe staying inside is a good idea after all."

There was a snap of a scream, or, to be precise, three, which interrupted Skulker from his retreat. The sounds were familiar to him, and he turned back to the light, which was far closer than it had been before, and expanding rapidly.

"I know those screams, why am I not the one causing them?!" He shouted at the anomaly, indignantly, before deciding that at the rate it was growing it wasn't best to remain floating where he was. "... It can wait."

He dived back down into his lair just as the light washed across it. It dimmed again soon afterwards, to the familiar dull ambience the Ghost Zone usually held, but Skulker waited a while before he decided to emerge. His trackers were showing nothing but static, which pretty much forced him to go outside again. As he flew up above his forest, he frowned at the realm around him. A few ghosts had also decided to brave the miasma once more, and he exchanged a puzzled glance with the nearest one.

The Ghost Zone looked... different...

Skulker scowled as he shot a net at the unfortunate ghost nearby, reeling it in while he looked around.

"What is going on here..."

* * *

><p>"Yikes!"<p>

Sonic yelled as he jumped into the air, avoiding the blast that hit the ground where he'd been standing a moment before. He had only been running back to find Tails and their new friends, when a high pitched whine alerted him to the attack moments before he'd moved. He turned to face the source of the fire, before back-pedalling from another energy bolt and deciding avoidance was the best policy.

"Oh come on! I bet Tails is eating my ice cream, will you back off- whoa!"

The blue ball of spikes tumbled across the ground as he found himself bundled in a strange net, which closed tightly around him and made it difficult to move. An indignant shout escaped the hedgehog; anyone who had the nerve to trap him instantly put themselves on his mental list of jerks. And any robot who did it were straight on the 'smash it' list. Sonic glared at the owner of the net.

"Yep, you're going on the smashing it list."

"A nice thought, but I don't think so. You're unique, and I'm thinking about branching out."

"Oh COME ON! What the heck are YOU doing here?!"

"Oh, hi Danny, you come to join the party?" Sonic grinned at the humans and Tails, who was burying his face in his palm. "Oh stop that bro, I don't end up in nets that often, let the dude have his fun."

"Ahh, whelp! Such a surprise to see you here!"

"Drop it, Skulker. You already knew I was here, didn't you?"

"Actually, not until you showed up just now. I was following this interesting creature here."

"Uh, I'm right here dudes. You can take this net off me any time now."

"Coming, Sonic!" Tails darted over to him, while Skulker drifted across to Danny, Sam and Tucker.

"How did you all come to be here?"

"None of your business, tin head. What about you?"

"Nothing you'd care about, child."

"Try us." Sam butted in, whilst Tucker waved his PDA threateningly.

"Fine. I don't know."

"... what?"

"I told you, whelp, I do not KNOW how I got here." Skulker scowled at the trio, then over at Sonic, who was half untangled from the net now. "I do not particularly care either. A hunt is a hunt."

"Wait, what? Hunt?" Sonic raised an eyebrow, and laughed as he freed his legs from the net, while Tails started to bundle it up. "Dude, hunting's illegal here. Especially hunting people."

"Do you really think I care?"

"Uh, Sonic, don't provoke him. The guy's got some nasty weapons."

"And I've faced down Chaos itself. C'mon metal-head, bring it on."

"Tails, quick, come here, we got a way with this guy."

Tails groaned as Sonic made a rude gesture at the floating machine, giving him enough time to examine it, before he smiled, catching onto the plan as Tucker explained it quickly. He turned the technogeek's PDA down, in favour of the Miles-Electric, and instantly started typing on the surface while Tucker crawled over to whisper with Sam and Danny.

"Guys, do you really think we should let Sonic fight Skulker?"

"The guy's a super fast hedgehog, do you really think we could stop him if we tried?"

"Good point, but still, we should warn him..." Danny agreed with Tucker, thoughtfully.

"True, but didn't the guy say he deals with deadly robots all the time?" Sam pointed out.

"I guess... The guy just gives me the creeps though, how do you think Sonic'll react if Skulker starts claiming he wants his pelt on a wall?"

"Sonic would probably just laugh." Tails piped up, walking across to them. "You know that thing, yes? It doesn't look like any of Eggman's machines, so it came from your world, didn't it?"

"Yeah, his name is Skulker, he's another ghost so, uh, guess you better warn Sonic that he might have trouble hitting him." Danny watched as Sonic sidestepped several shots from the hunter. "What's he doing?"

"Looks like he's trying to wear the guy out." Tucker pointed out. "Though I dunno if he can outlast Skulker. Did you beam that over to him, by the way, Tails?"

"Yup! A nice little virus that should send his systems haywire. Of course, it would've helped if you'd told me what he could do properly so I could tailor it better."

"It's fine, you just need to knock his robot suit out, after that he's pretty weak."

"AGHH!"

A steaming Sonic hit Danny in the face as he was blasted over into their hiding place by a lucky shot. The hedgehog sat up quickly and, with a quick apology, charged straight back at the ghost, smiling slightly less now. Danny sat up far slower, plucking a quill from his arm, and looked annoyed. He looked over at Sam, who shook her head, and frowned. A few seconds later, Skulker crashed into the spot where he'd been sitting; sending a cloud of dust and gravel into the air as his heavy body shattered the concrete. Tails gave a startled yelp and looked over at Sonic, who was dusting his hands off nearby.

"Sonic! Watch where you throw things!"

"Sorry, are you all okay?"

"YEAH I'm FINE, thanks!" Danny stood up from the dust cloud, holding a small green blob in one hand. "I just love having robots land on me."

"Nice one! Is that the dude in the suit?" Sonic grinned, walking over to them all and leaning close to inspect it. "Ahahah, he's smaller than a Chao, that's adorable."

"BE SILENT! RELEASE ME, WHELP!"Skulker shrieked as he swung his fists at Danny.

"Yeah yeah, you're lucky I don't have the Thermos with me, jerk." Danny lifted Skulker close to his face and grinned. "How well do you fly, by the way?"

"You wouldn't dare!"

"Wanna try me?" As the halfa moved the hand holding the ghost backwards, as if to throw him, he stopped when Skulker phased through his hand. "I thought not. Leave us alone, tin head."

"Hmph! I will have your pelt on my wall, child, but I will concede defeat. For now." Skulker said, climbing back into his suit.

"Did he... uh... just-" Sonic began, twirling a finger in the direction of the hunter's shaky suit as it slowly, and noisily, sat up again.

"-threaten to skin me? Ah, I don't think he really means it." Danny shot a glare at the ghost, who growled under his breath. "ESPECIALLY if he wants us to let him know when we find a way back."

"Fine. But I am not staying around here..." Skulker shot a predatory glare towards Sonic, who bristled visibly at him. "... Maybe I can skin the blue creature instead?" He asked hopefully, as if in a mocking compromise.

"Try it and I'll smash ya for sure, spooky." Sonic grinned back at him.

"Skulker."

"Fine child, I'm gone. But perhaps you should see if you can repair the damage to the Ghost Zone while you find a way back. It looks horrible."

"It always looks horrible!"

Sonic glanced at Tails, as Sam shouted the final remark into the sky after the hunter ghost. The hedgehog shrugged, and surveyed the damaged with an amused whistle. There was a significant dent in the pathway, where Skulker's armour had crashed into it after Sonic had kicked him, and the dust had scattered quite a bit to the sides. He looked towards the nearby buildings and breathed a relieved sigh, glad that his friends had started to head out of the town before he'd inadvertently brought the ghost towards it. Someone could've got hurt.

As he thought about it, a shadow of a frown floated across his face. Only Tails saw it; the humans having started muttering amongst themselves again. The fox shook his head at them, and tugged Sonic's arm, getting the hedgehog to perk an ear in his direction while he whispered at him. Sonic only smiled and shrugged at the comment Tails made, before strolling over towards the humans, apparently more determined now.

He rudely bushed into the centre of their group, grinning wickedly as his green eyes darted around the trio. Clapping his hands together loudly, Sonic laughed.

"So!" he shouted. "Who's up for the hedgehog back ride this time?!"

"He is." Danny and Sam said in chorus, pointing at Tucker, who was standing between them. Tucker, however, had pointed at Danny, but it didn't take him a moment to realise he was outnumbered.

"Well then, Tucker! We're going to the next town over, and you get a free ride, how great is that?!"

"I'll pass." Tucker raised his hand dismissively, but Sonic grabbed his wrist. "N-no it's quite alright! AHHHHHH!"

"Guess we gotta carry his stuff now." Sam kicked Tucker's bag as he was dragged off by Sonic in a cloud of dust. Danny chuckled.

"I guess it's only fair." He said, picking the mentioned bag up and slinging it over his shoulders alongside his own. "So where are we going now Tails?"

"Like Sonic said, we're going to the next town. We know you guys can't really keep up with us, so we need a place to stay soon as-" Tails pointed at the sky "-it'll be dark soon."

"Night?" Danny frowned at the familiar, yet somewhat strange sun, a hand shielding his eyes from the glare. "Oh yeah. Wow I wouldn't have guessed, does it always stay so bright here as the sun goes down?"

"Yeah, but when it gets closer to night you get some pretty cool sunsets!" Tails smiled. "What's it like in your world?"

"Lots of light pollution at night, lots of regular pollution in the day." Sam answered, and Danny shrugged as he passed Sam her spider backpack. "But otherwise it isn't much different."

"Cool. Come on, we should catch up with Sonic."

Tails whirled his tails and took off, flying just overhead, and Danny sighed as he watched the fox fly in front of them for a bit. Sam put her hand on his shoulder reassuringly, knowing he was thinking about joining Tails in the air, but at the same time it was a reminder that he shouldn't risk it for the time being. Danny pouted, but nodded, and the duo walked along behind Tails as he led the way.

* * *

><p>Danny sighed as he perched atop a tree, looking around the expansive landscape for signs of wherever they were going. He didn't want to stop overnight, instead wanting to keep going so they could get home quicker, but he did see the logic when Sam mentioned that they wanted to be rested just in case it wasn't as much of a breeze as Sonic implied it would be. Besides, Tucker had fallen asleep almost instantly, beaten only by the hedgehog.<p>

The ghost boy chuckled lightly, mentally wondering if Sonic simply had to be first at everything he did. Sam and Tails had dozed off soon afterwards, leaving just Danny awake. Normally he'd have fallen asleep first, needing to recover his energy after a fight. Not having actually done any of the fighting and only having to use his powers to turn himself intangible to avoid being hurt when Skulker fell on him, he was still buzzing with energy. So once everyone had fallen asleep, he shifted into his ghost form and flew through the roof of the house that they were staying in for the night.

After a brief flight, he had found the tree and stood on it, balancing as if the height and the wind weren't a problem; well, they weren't for someone who could fly anyway. His mood fell slightly as he couldn't see any sign of where they'd be heading next. The landscape was beautiful, he admitted that, and it was better when he finally got his airborne view, but it was really difficult to tell where anything was.

He hoped it was close anyway.

Danny lay back across the broad leaves of the tree, folding his arms behind his head as he watched the stars shining brightly in the sky. A pang of homesickness hit him as he tried to recognise the constellations, but found none that were even remotely familiar. It only emphasised just how far away from home they really were. Raising a white gloved hand to the sky, he trailed his fingers across it, drawing the familiar constellations where they should have been, and trying to compare them to the wide expanse above him.

He sighed, and took off from the tree, flying in an arc through the air before phasing back through the roof and into the room that the others were sleeping in. Shifting back into his human form with a flash, he yawned and dropped into the hammock between Sam and Tucker, before falling asleep.

Sonic, however, propped his head up on a chin, and raised an eyebrow, before glancing over at the nearby clock. The hedgehog stretched and rolled over in his own hammock, dropping back into his usual light sleep...

TBC


	7. Planning and Proceeding

**Cross Collision**

_Author's note:_ Thanks for sticking around during that long break, I've been really busy recently, so I apologise for that. I'll try not to leave a gap that long again in future, but the next update won't be until at least December, since I'm working on NaNoWriMo this month. Wish me luck!

Ps: I've already said enough times that no one has permission to continue my fanfics. Don't. It's terrible manners, write your own stories and don't piggyback on someone else's ideas without their permission, it's very rude and quite frankly it offends me. Stop it.

**Edit: Just a quick note- I haven't forgotten this story and have in fact got several new chapters drafted, I just need to revise them before I can post them! Part 8 should be up by the end of May 2015 :) Sorry for the wait!**

Part 7: Planning and Proceeding  
><span>

"And you are absolutely certain this will work?"

"Of course it will work, I'm a genius, you know."

Vlad sneered at the static covered screen, aiming his glare through the waves of noise; towards the scientist with the oversized moustache. "Whatever, just know if it goes wrong it shall be entirely your fault."

"Certainly, since you appear to have very little knowledge in dimensional mechanics yourself" was the amused answer, and the half-ghost rolled his eyes, deciding not to give that remark the dignity of a response. "Now, let's get the last bit started, yes?"

Vlad strolled over to another console across the room, this one connected to the portal. Eggman was relaying directions on how to complete the next stages, and the billionaire found himself grateful that he had his computer automatically recording the scientist's instruction. Eggman seemed to have an annoying habit of rambling as he explained, tending to explain points in further detail than they needed to be. Vlad waited at his console, picking out important things from the dictation, typing them into a clean list.

By the time he'd finished, Eggman had finished chattering and was shouting at something or someone off the screen. The half ghost walked back over to the communication screen, and heard the voice of the robot that the scientist kept yelling at. He chuckled quietly, wondering for a moment why Eggman kept this obvious distraction around, but simply shook his head as his cat climbed up onto the desk, demanding attention with an annoyed mew. The sound of the cat protesting as Vlad lifted her back down to the floor reminded Eggman that Vlad was waiting, and the scientist faced the screen again.

"Well then, shall we begin?" Vlad asked, impatiently.

"Yes, did you get my instructions down clearly?"

"Without a problem."

"Ohohoo, then let's begin. Stage one, initiate."

* * *

><p>"It's your turn, Sam!"<p>

"Oh no, I am not being dragged along by you, you'll dislocate my arm or something."

"Fair's fair, Danny and Tucker both got a ride, it's your turn!"

"No way. I'm perfectly capable of walking on my own."

"Go on Sam, you can't laugh at us and not let us laugh at you!" Tucker ventured into the conversation between Sam and Sonic, but he flinched at the girl's glare.

"Whoa nice one. You really could put Shadow to shame with that glare." Sonic laughed, and Sam blinked at him.

"Uh, thanks?"

"Still not getting you out of this, up you go!"

Sonic swept Sam off her feet and into his arms, stating that this way he wouldn't pull her shoulder, but ran off before she could protest further. Danny glared after them for a moment, before Tucker cleared his throat and pointed at Tails, who still had his back to them. Danny gave a calming sigh, then started to walk over to the fox, who was inspecting the tree the halfa had been perching on the previous night. The fox jumped as Danny put a hand on his shoulder, turning around with his tails bristling. He relaxed quickly however, and smiled, brushing the fur on his arm back into place.

"Geez, your hands are cold!"

"Heh, I get that a lot, sorry." Danny glanced over the tree, trying to figure out what Tails found interesting about it.

The fox, as if hearing his thoughts, piped up. "Well, it's strange. This tree's picked up some strange energy, it's kinda like Chaos but not exactly..."

"Really?"

"Yeah, Chaos Energy's this super powerful stuff that's basically in everything, but if you give something too much it can get something like super powers!" Tails laughed, patting the tree's trunk lightly. "Doesn't always work on living stuff, but it usually shows a reaction. Sonic can use it, so can Shadow. I can't, but I have my machines so-" the fox hesitated, tapping the screen of his computer and quirking an eyebrow at it. His attention remained on the screen as he continued to talk. "-sorry, I'm rambling a bit. The point is this tree's got more than usual, you can't really tell if you don't know about it but it's there. But it's not exactly Chaos, which is weird." Tails sighed and flicked through the details on the screen. "But I dunno what it could be. I'd say artificial, but it doesn't seem like it..."

"Huh..." Danny scratched his head. "Wow, that's real interesting, but is it, y'know, important?"

"Oh? No, not really, I was just curious." The fox stood up, folding the Miles-Electric shut, and smiled. "I've got all the data on here so I can look at it properly later. Come on, we should really catch up with Sonic."

"Uh, yeah, I don't see that happening."

"He'll stop eventually." Tails chuckled, and started to walk ahead.

Danny watched him gain some distance, before shaking his head and looking over at Tucker. "Let's go."

They caught up with Sonic at the edge of a nearby lake. He was laying on his stomach with a hand to his eye and his ears pinned back, muttering discontentedly. Tails, Danny, and Tucker looked to each other, then back at Sonic, then they all started laughing. The hedgehog pouted as he sat up, rubbing his eye.

"It's not funny."

"Lemme guess, Sam decided she didn't want to be carried any more?" Danny asked between giggles, and Sonic nodded. "Yeah... we did try to warn you."

"Yeah, but did she have to punch me in the eye?! I need that!"

"Be glad she didn't kick you, those boots of hers are heavy." Tucker grumbled.

"Where's she gone, anyway?"

"She's just over that hill there, sulking or something. Eh, fine, she can just walk the rest of the way."

"I'm sure she'll be grateful for that wise decision, Sonic."

"Whatever." Sonic got to his feet, smiling once more. "Let's keep going, apart from those friends of yours attacking, it's been pretty quiet, and that usually means trouble from Eggman."

"Yeah, I'm surprised he hasn't shown up to see what all this is about." Tails agreed.

"Well I don't wanna find out what this guy's up to, so lead the way." Tucker piped up, receiving nods of agreement from the animals.

Tucker looked over to Danny, who mentioned that he'd go get Sam and they'd catch up quickly, as long as Sonic didn't run off again. The hedgehog simply chuckled at the final remark, and gave him a thumbs up, leading Tails and Tucker onwards at a far more relaxed pace. Danny waited until both the locals' backs were turned, before he shifted into invisibility and flew towards where Sam was, indeed, sulking. A quick swooping motion and she was in the air in his arms, blinking in surprise.

Sonic twitched an ear backwards at the muted laughter behind them for a moment, before rolling his eyes and glancing over at Tails, holding his hand out for the computer that the fox was still playing with. Tails smiled and passed it to him, letting the hedgehog see what he had been reading; Tucker leaned forwards slightly to get a look, to see it was the page full of information that the fox had gathered from the tree which had interested him. It was all nonsense to him, trees just weren't that interesting. He groaned and straightened up, stretching, while only partly listening to Sonic and Tails share their current topic of interest. Well, Tails was doing most of the talking. Sonic didn't really seem to be paying much attention.

"Boo!"

Tucker yelped as fingers jabbed him sharply in the sides, and he writhed away from his friends, who had crept up on him while he was distracted by Sonic and Tails' conversation. Though he was pretty certain they'd been cheating to aid the sneaking part.

"Aww come on guys, that wasn't fair!"

"Toldya we'd catch up."

"Yeah yeah."

"Everyone here now? Cool!" Sonic spun on his heel and grinned. "Now, before we go any further, I wanna warn you guys; if Eggman comes along and tries to do the whole 'chill dude I'm a good guy' thing, don't listen to him. He's pretty good at it but wow, if I end up with you lot as hostages or whatever I'm gonna feel really bad about it."

"Sure thing, Sonic."

"Just wanted to be clear on that, you have no idea how boring it gets after the seventh time." Sonic rolled his eyes and Tails nodded.

"Shall we?" The fox said, motioning onwards. "It's not too far now, relatively speaking. The sooner we get moving, the sooner we can get you and these 'ghosts' of yours home."

"I'm cool with that." Danny said, nodding.

Tucker watched as they walked ahead of him. He always trailed behind a bit so they didn't pay much attention, but he was thinking. Thinking about home, thinking about all his stuff in his room, thinking about lunch. Lots of little things, to stop himself from thinking about that possibility that this only plan wouldn't work. He looked up to see Danny glance over his shoulder at him, and in the way that only best friends could, they both knew they were thinking the same things.

* * *

><p>Amy Rose sighed, resting her head in her hands. The ghost had given up after she'd pelted him with her hammer for the thousandth time, and she'd got her jewellery box back, only to have him take the box with her favourite pastry in it instead. He'd regret that one. But she'd been running around after him for hours, and had to rest for a while. Trying to negotiate around walls rather than through them made things take longer than they should.<p>

She shook her head and stood up, stretching. She hadn't called Sonic since that ghost guy had started messing around with her stuff, so she pulled out her phone and dialled Tails' number. When he didn't answer, she groaned; that meant they were probably out on an adventure. Again. The pink hedgehog hung up, and started scrolling through the features in her phone, before she found the one she wanted.

Tails, and everyone around him, soon enough found themselves listening to Amy ranting on about losing her favourite pastry to the Box Ghost. Well, until he flicked the Miles-Electric into mute anyway. He only un-muted it once her mouth stopped moving for a moment, which was when she noticed the trio of humans standing behind them.

"Ohhhhh were those the people you guys had over yesterday?"

"Yeah, these are Danny, Sam, and Tucker. We're helping them get home."

"Aww that's sweet of you two. Hi guys! My name's Amy Rose!"

"Hi Amy," Tucker piped up first, grinning, "did you get the Box Ghost eventually?"

"Uh, kinda. I got my trinket box back, but then that jerk stole the box with the pastry I'd bought for my breakfast in it. I haven't slept all night because I've been following him around, and when I catch him he's getting a hammer shoved so far up his-"

"Thank you, Amy, we get the picture!"

"So where you guys heading?"

"To old Eggman's place. Gotta borrow some stuff."

"To help them get home? Can't they just take a plane?"

"Inter-dimensional air travel is pretty hard to come by." Tails laughed.

"Ohhhh." Amy nodded. "I get you. Well good luck with that... Do any of you know what I can do to get this guy to stop bothering me?"

"Throw a ball at him or something, he hates round things." Danny laughed. "We'll see what we can do about him when we can for you."

"I'll give it a shot, thanks! I'll call you later guys!"

"Okay Amy," Tails chuckled, "but get some sleep before you do, or you'll end up looking like a zombie."

"Bye Tails. Bye Sonic!"

"Yeah, bye Amy, have fun with that!" Sonic waved behind Tails' head, and walked away again.

Tails shut the call off, and sighed. He turned to Sonic, who shook his head. The fox put the tablet away, and took off, flying above the group to get a good view of the area around them. Over on the horizon there was the edge of a large industrial area, and that was where they were heading. He dropped down to stand next to the others, who were squinting in the direction he'd pointed.

"You guys won't see it from down here, but I can see the factory now when I'm flying. It's still pretty far away, but it won't take too much longer to get there."

"That's cool!" Sonic grinned at the humans, who smiled back. "Hear that? We'll have you guys home soon!"

"Awesome!"

* * *

><p>Jack Fenton looked out at the street below the ops center, frowning slightly. Vlad had sent the plans for the portal over, but they hadn't heard from him since. Jack knew he was a busy man, so he didn't mind so much, but a few extra hands would have helped in the repairs.<p>

He turned his attention back to his embroidery; a happy little ghost was slowly forming in the stitch work. He was supposed to be examining the portal research, but so far he'd found nothing helpful so was taking a break. Jack had tried to find his son to start blathering on about ghosts, but the boy had been nowhere to be found. He was good at that lately though, so the large man didn't think anything of it.

A shriek from the road below caught his attention, and he tossed his embroidery onto the table, grabbing an ectogun and charging down the stairs like a bull. He met up with his wife at the bottom, and they both bounced out of the door, armed and ready to shoot the attacking ghost.

Except it wasn't a ghost.

"What the heck is that?"

The large, robotic wasp hovered over the street, its wings creating a metallic drone as a plasma ball formed at the tip of its stinger, aiming at the hapless bystander who was in front of it.

"I don't know honey, but we've gotta stop it."

Maddie Fenton cocked her own rifle-like weapon, and took aim. Jack followed suit.

"I toldya we needed a bigger can of bug spray." he muttered.

TBC


	8. Reopening

**Cross Collision**

_AN: Hey guys, long time no update! Sorry to keep you hanging on this, I had meant to update far earlier but you know, life and such happen :) I have the next several chapters written already so I'll try update faster for a while (they still need editing which is why I haven't updated them too). I will finish this story eventually, thanks for sticking with me for so long! :3 Without more delay, let's get on with this little bit of a calm(ish) chapter before the action gets going!_

Part 8: Reopening

The group stood before the towering fence that surrounded the factory before them, having stopped on Sonic's suggestion. The humans stared through the links in the wire mesh at the shining towers and buildings before them, which almost resembled a city themselves. Clearly Eggman was very fond of the maintenance of his machinery, and, though the building stuck out from the green lands around it like a sore thumb, in a way the factory itself held its own beauty. It just did not blend in with the land surrounding it particularly well. Tucker tried to point that out to Sam, who was wrinkling her nose in disgust at the smell of oil in the air. Tails saw the pair about to start arguing, and stepped between them, trying to point out both sides of view to them both; the factory was some of the more advanced technology in their world, yet it was draining the life from the land around it, showing in the dull grass closest to the perimeter and the clouds of smoke twisting into the air. Tucker and Sam looked at each other, but nodded in agreement.

Sonic, meanwhile, was focused on the patrolling robots inside the gate, and Danny took the decision to stand near him, tapping a finger on his chin. The hedgehog gave him nothing more than a sideways glance and a smile, before pointing at one of the vaguely humanoid robots nearby. Danny looked at the machine as it paced its short, set path, meeting another of its kind at each end of the line. It resembled some bizarre dance routine. He smirked at it, vaguely debating turning the floor intangible and letting it fall through to ruin the motions of its patrol, but ultimately deciding against it.

"I'm gonna smash it."

"What?" the half-ghost turned his attention back to Sonic, whose face was now wearing a devious grin.

"I am going to smash it. I'm gonna vault the fence and bounce off that one's head, then that one over there," he moved his pointing finger to a flying one a bit further on, "then from him I'll hit the next dude along, and so on, 'til I reach the door!"

"Sounds... Uh, like a plan, but wouldn't being sneaky be a bit better?"

"Oh sure, but nowhere near as fun!" Sonic chuckled lightly and gave him a thumbs up. "Be right back, Danny! If old eggy shows up, let Tails handle him."

With that, Sonic jumped high into the air and bounded over the fence easily, triggering a loud siren in the process. He laughed and rand towards the nearest robot in a blur, beginning the little sequence of smashing that he'd just described, vanishing in clouds of dust and scrap metal. Tucker gave a bored sigh and looked to Danny, who shook his head. His friend wanted him to fly them over so they could join in, but Danny didn't want to show his power just yet, still unsure of how wise doing so would be. Sam walked over to him, followed by Tails and Tucker, the latter of which was still pouting. Tails grinned up at the humans.

"He'll be back in a second. He-" an explosion sounded from somewhere within the factory, and the fox paused as he rubbed his ear to clear the noise from it, "... ow. As I was saying, he's probably just making a mess while he's at it."

"Why? It's pretty pointless..."

"I dunno, it sounds like he's having fun." Danny smirked at Sam, who sighed and shook her head.

"Yeah, and if there's some weapon in there he could probably smash it before this Eggman dude uses it." Tucker nodded and folded his arms. "No point wasting the opportunity, right?"

"Heh, well actually that explosion was more likely Sonic just set off one of the traps in Eggman's office. Close quarters aren't his speciality." Tails laughed lightly at the humans' expressions. "But don't worry, he'll be fine, his reaction times are incredible, not a lot gets past him!"

"Really? He seems kinda... scatterbrained." Sam pointed out, but Tails simply smiled.

"I know, but you haven't seen him when he's serious." the fox shook his head. "Normally that's only in an end of the world kinda scenario, so if you saw him serious I'd suggest running the other direction."

"But that's won't happen today, will it, little bro?"

"Ah, Sonic! When did you get back?"

"About two seconds ago, you were all talking so I went the long way round." Sonic laughed at his friend's startled expression, then held a hand out holding a glowing glass tube to Danny. "Here, this is what we were looking for. Now, I think I may have upset the guards a little bit, so who's up for a brisk jog?"

To illustrate his comment, loud, disharmonious clanking announced the arrival of several more of the round robots, accompanied by a few insect like ones flying above them. They crossed the factory grounds towards the fence, and the small group looked at each other, before turning on their heels and running away. Sonic led them through the fairly open fields towards a dense woodland, and once they were certain they weren't being followed, they slowed to a halt, hidden within the tightly packed trees. Tucker dramatically dropped to the floor, acting as if all the running was a deadly poison. Sonic gave a quiet snort of amusement at the unfit human, and glanced at the other two, Sam and Danny seemed to be faring fairly well, if slightly out of breath, as they leaned against the trunk of a nearby tree.

"I guess you guys don't do a lot of running in your world then." the hedgehog chuckled, clearly amused.

"Only when we have to. Like gym class. Or ghost attacks." Sam responded, and Danny nodded in agreement.

"Eh, I don't understand humans. None of you like to run. No wonder no one thinks they can!"

"Hey, we can run, we just don't need to normally. That's what bikes, or scooters, or cars are for, man." Tucker groaned as he finally sat up again, shaking his head. "Too much running isn't good for your health."

"I dunno, sometimes you can run pretty dang fast when the mystery meat special's on in the cafeteria." Danny piped up with a smirk on his face, and Tucker shrugged.

"Food is an entirely reasonable excuse to run, Danny."

"I have to agree with Tucker on that one." Tails chuckled, and Sonic nodded too.

"Well, if food's a good excuse for running, who wants to race to the next village and get something?"

"Sonic, no way can these guys race you, no offence."

"None taken, you're right." Sam nodded to the animals. "But I don't mind a walk, how far is it?"

"Hmm. Probably about ten seconds away..."

"Lemme rephrase, how far is it for people who can't run like you?"

"Oh. Uhm." Sonic looked thoughtful for a moment, trying to consider the distance, before glancing at Tails in a plea for help. The fox laughed again.

"It's about a mile away." He said, with a smile. "There's a clearing in this woodland where there's a small village, we hang out here fairly often when around here."

"Ah, cool. Lead the way then, I guess." Danny smiled at their furry escorts, and together they walked casually along the well trodden path between the trees.

* * *

><p>"Ahahah! It worked!"<p>

"...You doubted that it would?"

"Maybe a little." Eggman grinned across the computer's display, now undistorted by static. "But only because the art of dimensional science is not an exact... well... science."

"So what exactly is it going to do?" Vlad frowned at the screen, his dour expression a stark contrast to the pleased Eggman's.

"To put it simply, it will merge your... 'ghost zone', with our special zone, temporarily. As such, we'll be able to traverse it reliably and more importantly, fix this ridiculous damage your creatures are causing over here. There's only room for one world dictator and that's me."

"Oh getting rid of the ghosts is simple, you merely have to prove you're stronger. Now as for these horrid robotic insects you left over here..."

"Ah, so that's where that flight of buzzers went! No matter, they'll try return after they reach their pre-programmed route. They don't have recognition for locations, so they won't realise they're in another world."

"They are shooting at bystanders and I cannot allow this, they may harm people."

"Eh, maybe a few minor burns, they can't really aim well so I wouldn't worry. They're more a deterrent than anything."

"I would still feel more comfortable with a way to shut them down."

"Oh you're such a spoil sport." Eggman brushed his moustache. "Unfortunately, they're not easy to shut down, but I'll send you a command to relay to them that'll make them come back to this portal of yours, if that'll make you happy."

"Marginally."

"Fine," Vlad watched as the scientist diverted his attention elsewhere for a moment, the faint sounds of clicking keys coming through the speakers, before the moustached face turned back to look at him again, "there, you just need to get in range of them and wirelessly transmit it, the leader is the only one that needs to pick it up."

"Very well."

As Vlad set about downloading the details on one side of the portal, Eggman stood up to walk over to his own workstations and look at his sketched out maps and blueprints. He frowned slightly as he looked through the hastily scribbled notes; yes, this Vlad Masters was not an expert on dimensional mechanics, but it was hardly his own speciality either. Toying with it on occasion had never really ended well, the only reason they'd set up a stable, if temporary, connection between their worlds was because of accidents in the first place. However, Eggman was not one to waste an opportunity.

If he could just divert Vlad's attention with the wayward humans that Sonic as escorting, he would have ample time to send a small robotic force through the portals to take over that world. The little code he'd sent Vlad would bring his buzzers back, and that would serve as a test to find out just how stable the portal was, as well as the opportunity to remotely survey the chaotic realm between their worlds for potential dangers. Well, dangers to himself anyway, this other human was useful, but not so useful that Eggman cared what he would do to guard himself against chaos.

"Now, my good doctor, I have one more question for you, and I expect you to be honest."

"Oh?" Vlad's voice drew Eggman's attention back to their call. "What would that be?"

"Why did you want to set up this portal diversion?" Vlad nodded on his end of the signal. "You see, if you're planning to attack my world with your little robots, I'm afraid I'll have to shut the gateway down."

"Now why would I ever do that?"

"Hmm, one can wonder. Not that world domination isn't an admirable goal, of course. Nothing like a little ambition."

"Please, Masters, you underestimate me! I'm not a simple minded cartoon villain, I assure you. In fact, you're more than welcome to tail my robots back here and see for yourself. In any case, I think you may want those kids back on your side, right?" Eggman smirked. "Well, we need this portal running for that."

"True, I suppose." Vlad tapped his chin thoughtfully for a moment. "I shall set about sending your robots back to you, so if you could perhaps locate those children?"

"I am already observing them. Unfortunately, they're with a rather pesky rodent who is a large thorn in my side, so I have to wait for a sufficient opportunity to get in touch with them directly."

"Hm. Well, regardless we need to wait for the dimension crash to stabilise before we can do anything else, correct?"

"Yes."

"In that case I shall return shortly."

Leaving Eggman to his own work, Vlad whirled away from the screen, carrying the disc with the code for the buzzers on it with him and grabbing a small transmitter from the table as he went. With an irritated huff, he stepped out of his lab and shouted down his ghost servants, waiting for one to appear. As the green butler phased his way up through the floor, Vlad passed him the device he held, commanding him to locate the robot insects and press the button near them. It'd be far easier to let the ghost handle it for him than to try and look for the robots himself; he didn't entirely trust Eggman to not send anything dangerous through the portal to him. The scientist didn't know his new contact's power, but he'd be sure to find out if he tried anything funny.

* * *

><p>"Jazzypants, we're home! Hey! Jazz?"<p>

"What's wrong dear?"

"Maddie, have you seen Jazz? She was here when we were chasing those bugs but now she's not."

"Hmm. She probably went to find Danny and make sure he's alright." Maddie smiled at Jack as they entered their home. "You know how much she worries about her little brother."

"Yeah, good point! Where is that boy anyway? He's got chores to do."

"Probably just round Sam or Tucker's house. Those three are inseparable."

Jack grinned back at his wife as she stopped in the kitchen for a drink, while he headed down the stairs to the lab. The anti ghost rifle; which they'd given up using once they discovered the robotic bugs were indeed just robots and woefully unaffected by it; dropped to his side as he stared in surprise at the space in front of the portal. He quickly raised the gun and took aim once more, as he called for Maddie, slowly and low at first but quickly getting louder until she came down the stairs to join him.

At her first view being her husband pointing a gun at something, while illuminated by green somewhere off to the side, she pulled her utility staff from her belt and extended it, jumping into the lab to stand beside Jack and his stern expression. Her orange jump-suited husband bellowed at the creature before them, who simply scowled back.

"Who are you and how did you get into our house?!"

"Tch. Put those things away before you hurt yourselves, humans."

"I don't think so. You're in our home, and if you're smart you'll go straight back into the Ghost Zone or we'll be examining your molecules, ectoplasmic fiend."

"You'll have a hard time trying." The creature before them glared angrily at their weapons. "Either put those away or I'll disable them." It chuckled, red eyes moving to each of their faces in turn. "This is hardly the way to greet a guest, after all."

"We did not invite you, you are not a guest in our house. Leave!"

"Rest assured, I shall. I was simply gathering my bearings, and I followed some robots to an exit, but it closed, then this one opened." The creature brushed a gloved hand through it's spikes and turned away from them, clearly not bothered by their weaponry at all. "But since I've been met with nothing but hostility I shall take my leave."

"... Wait." Maddie blinked through her red goggles at Jack as the large man spoke, lowering the tip of his gun ever so slightly. "You look way too solid to be a ghost."

"A ghost? Ha!" It turned around and bared its teeth in what appeared to be a grin at them. "Are all humans this superstitious? Do I honestly look like anything dead?"

"Well, I guess not... But you're still pretty weird, are you like, an alien or something?"

"Jack, really? You aren't going to believe this creature, right?"

"Well, to you I may as well be. I'm certainly not from this world, the humans on mine are far shorter." He glanced at the guns. "And more inclined to much more efficient weapons. You couldn't fire those things very fast in a pinch, I expect. They look like they use a lot of energy, Jack, was it?"

"Yeah, they do, but ectoplasm is a pretty good at holding its charge and I- wait." Jack frowned at the spiky creature. "Wait, I am not wasting my time explaining my weapons to you, get back in there!"

"Of course, but if I may, have you seen those robots around? I feel they may be important."

"Uh... Yeah but..."

"You will direct me to them, correct?"

"Wait a minute, I want to ask you something."

Maddie raised a sceptical eyebrow at the black and red furred creature in front of her, before slowly lowering her staff as Jack spoke, his own weapon hanging loosely by his side again. The creature smirked as it listened, watching the much larger man with interest.

"Heh, well, I suppose I could help you out a little with those buzzers. Point me the direction they've gone, and I'll catch up with them in a flash."

"I don't see how, they're fast."

"You shall see." The creature nodded at Maddie. "Ma'am, I owe you an apology for showing up unannounced, but I shall be departing shortly." He held a hand out towards her, and she frowned down at it.

"We are not friends."

"Of course not, we're not introduced. My name is Shadow the Hedgehog, and if your name is 'Fenton' as it says, so blatantly emblazoned on that staff of yours, I may have something far more interesting than the robots to discuss with you."

"... What?"

"Is your son named 'Danny'?" Shadow held his hands up, chuckling as the staff pressed swiftly under his chin once more. Any pretence of friendliness Maddie had shown towards him before was gone. "Ah, I seem to have touched a nerve."

"Why do you know my son?!"

"Where is he? You better not have hurt him, Shadow." Jack had lifted his gun again and the hedgehog shook his head.

"He's fine, he's with an... ally of mine. Unfortunately there is a less than savoury fellow tracking his every movement in my world."

"Your... World? How did he get into the Ghost Zone with the portal shut?!"

"I don't know, I wasn't there, was I? Oh come now, put those down, I already told you I wasn't going to cause any trouble. I have other places to be." Shadow pushed the weapon tips aside casually, moving them with ease even against Jack's strength and Maddie's anger. "You have several options here. Either you let me chase the robots and find the other route through, likely the one that your son went through. You let me travel back through this portal here. Or Danny and his friends end up stuck in my world."

"And what if we chose to travel through ourselves?"

"You'd never find the way. I can explain why, but there isn't any telling how long it'll be before these gateways shut again."

The hedgehog smiled, watching the humans before him as they contemplated his offer. It was one sided, sure, but it was their only chance and they knew it. He knew they could always take the option to not believe him, and he knew if any human came to him with the same offer, he'd refuse to believe them too. But he currently considered himself lucky that they didn't seem too interested in trying to dismember him before finding out if he was already dead or not; acting nonchalant about weapons being pointed in his face was one thing, but he wasn't sure what kinds of weapon they were exactly, so he'd rather not be left on the business end. It didn't take long before Maddie slammed the tip of her staff on the ground, scowling down at him.

"Tell us what you know."

"Very well."

TBC


End file.
